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1170

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1882

MAIN

GIFT OF

THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

APOLOGY OF AL KINDT,

WEITTEIS' AT THE COIJItT OF AL MAMXrjS",

(a.h. 215; A.D. 830)

IN DEFENCE OF
CHRISTIANITY AGAINST ISLAM.

ttji an lEssag on its ^ue anti ^utjorgjip reati fiefore tfje
l^ogal Asiatic .Societg.

SIR WILLIAM MUIR, K.C.S.L, LL.D.,

AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF MAHOMET."

LONDON :

SMITH, ELDER & Co., 15 WATERLOO PLACE.

1882.
\^AU Rights Reserved.']

HERTFORD :

PRINTED BY STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS.

PREFACE

I MAY say at once that my primary object, in the
present undertaking, is to place the Apology of Al
^ KiNDY in the hands of those who will use it in the
interests of the Christian faith.

At the same time, apart from the religious aspect,
the Apology possesses a very peculiar interest of its
own. My attention was first directed to it by the
Turkish Mission Aid Society, which printed very
carefully the text from two imperfect manuscripts.
A cursory perusal convinced me of its high dialectic
merit, and also of its presumable authenticity, as
belonging to the age — the third century of the Hegira
(about 830 a.d.) — in which it purports to have been
written. I accordingly published a short sketch, with
a few extracts, in the Indian Female Evangelist.^

Further study deepened the conviction. The
Apology is quoted by the well-known writer Al
Biruni (about 390 a.h.), as the Epistle of '^ Abd al

^ Indian Female Evangelist ^ London, Nisbet and Co., April, 1881, Art. I.

4G>1247

VI PREFACE.

Masih ihn Ishdc^ Al Kindy." This quotation, while
proving the currency of the work in the century follow"
ing that in which it was written, has given rise to a
confusion, in the minds of some, between our Author
and the famous Al Kindy (Aeu Yusuf Ibi^ Ishac),
^4he Philosopher of Islam," who also flourished at
the Court of Al Mamun. I was led therefore to
inquire carefully into the question of authorship.

The '^ Philosopher" was unquestionably a professed
Mahometan, which at once dispels the notion that he
could have had any hand in the Apology. But the
Beni Kinda (whence* the title Al Kindy) formed a
great clan of themselves, who, advancing from the
south, spread over the centre and north of Arabia, and
had, in the fifth and sixth centuries of the Christian
era, a distinguished role in the history of the Penin-
sula.^ At the rise of Islam, though the greater part of
the tribe, headed by the celebrated Al Ashath, passed
over to the faith of Mahomet, still a respectable
minority appear to have continued their attachment to
the Christian religion ; and in the time of Al Mamun,
this remnant must have afforded ample numbers to
produce other men of distinction bearing the tribal
title of Kindy ^ besides the great Philosopher. That
our Author belonged to such a branch of the Kindy
race, there is no reasonable doubt. And the internal
evidence (apart altogether from that supplied by the
quotation from Al Biruni) affords the strongest pre-

1 See Life of Mahomet (1st edition), vol. i. p. clxiiii et seq.

PEEFACE.

VII

sumption that the work is what it professes to be, —
namely, an Apology in defence of the Christian religion
in its polemical aspect, as opposed to the dominant
Faith, at the Court of the Caliph Al Mamiin. The
Preliminary Essay is designed to establish this.

Apart from its literary and historical interest,
however, the Apology can well afford to stand, as a
controversial work, upon its own intrinsic merits. Not-
withstanding a good deal that is weak in reasoning,
some things that are even questionable in fact, and
abundance of censorious epithets against the Moslem,
Jewish, and Magian faiths that might well have been
materially softened, yet, taken as a whole, the argument
is, from the Apologist's stand-point, conducted with
wisdom and ability ; while throughout it is charac-
terized by a singular mastery of the Arabic language.
The treatment of Islam is so trenchant that the circula-
tion of the Apology could hardly be tolerated in any of
the effete and bigoted Mahometan states of the present
day. And, indeed, excepting the Motazelite Caliphs,
and perhaps also the great Akbar, I suppose there
has been no Mahometan government in any age which
would not have considered it a duty to suppress a
work so dangerous to Islam, by the severest pains
and penalties.^ But as regards our own territories,
the case is different. And certainly the appearance of
an Apology written and circulated at the Court

i I am told by Dr. Lansing that by the old law of Egypt any house in
which the MS. might be found was liable to be razed to the ground with forty
houses round.

VIII PREFACE.

of an Abbasside Calipli, could hardly be objected to in
the dominions of the Defender of the Christian faith.

With the view, therefore, of facilitating the use
and translation of the Apology, or of selections from
it, I have compiled a very full analysis of its contents,
with a copious translation of the more interesting
portions. In doing this, I have indicated a few pass-
ages which, for reasons specified, should be omitted.
Whether there should be any further curtailment
must depend on local considerations.

As an ancient and indigenous product of Asiatic
Christianity, the Apology possesses not only a deep
interest for ourselves, but it has also a practical bear-
ing on the same controversy still being prosecuted
in the East. The Christian Advocate there has it
often thrown in his teeth that he is introducing
a Christ whose features and teaching have been
moulded after a European type ; and whose religion,
consequently, though suited to the Western, is alien
from the Asiatic, mind and habit. This, at any rate,
cannot be said of our Apologist. An Arab of the
Arabs, born and bred a thousand years ago in the
plains of Chaldsea, Al Kindy presents himself and
his faith in a purely Asiatic dress and language.
The objectors will find that the Gospel changes not
with time or clime ; and that neither in form nor
substance, nor in the reasoning by which it is
supported, does the Christianity of Al Kindy
materially differ (excepting perhaps in the more

PREFACE. jx

fervid temperament and livelier fancy of the Asiatic
disputant) from that which is put forth by the
Missionary of the present day.

I have not sought to transfuse the eloquence of
Al Kindy into these pages, but have confined myself
to the substance and tenour of the argument. The
discourse throughout is much abridged, and even
where a passage is marked as a translation, the gist
of the same is for the most part given in brief, and
without the cumulation of epithets, and exuberance
of verbiage, in which our Author delights. Even if
I had the ability for the task, the differing genius
of our language would have interfered with any
attempt of mine at imitation. To form an adequate
conception of the rushing flood of Al Kindy's rhetoric,
the original must be read. Into Oriental languages,
however, such as Persian and Urdoo, there should
be little difficulty in transfusing both the style and
the spirit of our Author.

It is now six-and-thirty years since, at the request
of Dr. Pfander, I wrote an account of his three
excellent Treatises on the Mahometan Controversy,
in the Calcutta Eeview.^ The effect produced by
these, both in India and Turkey, has been not in-
considerable. But it is no disparagement of them
to say that Al Kindy's Apology may be expected
to cause a sensation incomparably more profound.
That the champion of Christianity was himself a

1 Calcutta Ecview, vol. viii. Art. VI.

X PREFACE.

native of the East, of noble Arab birth, and yet a
Christian by descent, a philosopher, and an honoured
attendant at the Court of the Caliph Al Mamiin,
must add prodigiously to the weight already attaching,
from its intrinsic merits, to our Author's argument.
Between this and Pfander's works, there is just the
diflPerence between perusing an essay, and hearing the
warm and impassioned eloquence of the advocate in
his own defence ; between reading the description of
a battle, and witnessing with your own eyes the
hotly-contested field of the battle itself.

Grateful acknowledgment is due to the TurJcish
Mission Aid Societi/, for their ready appreciation of
the value of the Apology, and the care taken in
presenting us, notwithstanding the imperfection of
the manuscripts, with a text so intelligently and
carefully edited.

W. M.

1 December J 1881.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface .....

PAGE
V

Essay on Age and Authorship .
Speech of Al Mamun

Letter of Al Hashimy the Moslem Advocate
Eeply of Al Kindy.
•^The Trinity . . .

Life of Mahomet ....

i
xii
1
2
3
4

*^ Assassinations .....

"Warlike Expeditions

"Wives of Mahomet ....

7
10

Evidence of Prophecy

Conquest of Persia ....

Miracles ......

11
13
14

Apostacy of the Arabs ....

The Three Dispensations

The Coran: Materials and mode of collection .

18
20
22

^ Solecisms, matter and style . . . .
Worldly inducements ....
I^Tame of Mahomet on the Great Throne

30
33
35

Preeminence of the Seed of Abraham .

Ordinances of Islam . . . .

Prohibition of Swine's flesh

Pilgrimage ...•••
Saracenic Crusade ....

v/ Contradictory Passages . . . .

XII

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

War as a Divine remedy
Martyrs, Moslem and Christian
Temporal inducements .
Intercession of Mahomet
The Trinity defended
Adoration of the Cross
The Fateha
Christianity described
Old Testament Prophecies
Jewish Scriptures uncorrupted
Life of Christ .
Ministry of the Apostles
Miracles no longer needed
Conclusion . .

PAGE

45
46
48
50
51
52

)>
53
54

THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

AN ESSAY ON" ITS AGE AND AUTHOESHIP.

\_Read before the Royal Asiatic Society.']

Al BiRUNi, in his Vestiges of Ancient Nations, written
A.D. 1000 (a.h. 390), while describing the customs of the
Sabeans, cites the authority of Ibn Ishdc al Kindy, the
Christian^ in these words :

" Likewise Abd al Masih ibn Ishac al Kindy, the Christian, in his
reply to the Epistle of Abdallah ibn Ismail al Hashimy, relates of
them (the Sabeans) that they are notorious for Human sacrifice,
but that at present they are not able to practise openly the same." ^

A work answering the above description has recently been
published by the Turkish Mission Aid Society, in Arabic,
under the following title : The Epistle of Ahdallah ibn Ismail
al Hashimy to Abd al Masih ibn Ishdc al Kindy, inviting him
to embrace Islam ; and the Reply of Abd al Masih, refuting
the same, and inviting the Hdshimite to embrace the Christian
Faith.

The book, we learn from a Note at the end, was printed
from two MSS. obtained, one in Egypt, the other in Constan-
tinople. Neither has the name of the copyist, nor the year of
transcription. They are both said in this note, to be full

1 Chronology of Ancient Nations, p. 187, by Dr. Sachau, London, 1879.

.\jz>^ ^^1\ ^^iCij "i CS\d J^^ j^Ul ^M ^^yo ^\

ii THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

of errors and discrepancies. But the book has been edited
with care and intelligence, and as a whole may be regarded
as a correct reproduction of the original. The editor certainly
deserves great credit for the way in which the task is
executed. I proceed to give a brief account of the work.

The letters, themselves anonymous, are preceded by a
short preface :

'* In the Name of Gob, the One, the Eternal.

*' It is related that in the time of Abdallah al Mam^^n, there
lived a man of Hashimite descent, and of Abbasside lineage, nearly
related to the Caliph. The same was famed, among high and low,
for devotion to Islam, and the careful observance of all its
ordinances. This person had a friend, learned and virtuous,
endowed with the gifts of culture and science, of pure and noble'
descent from the Beni Kinda, and distinguished for his attachment
to the Christian faith. The same was in the service of the Caliph,
and nigh unto him in honour and dignity. JS'ow these two men had
a mutual love, and an implicit trust in the friendship of each other.
Al MlMtrN, Commander of the Faithful, moreover, and his whole
Court, were aware of it. But we are averse from mentioning their
names, lest it should do harm. The Hashimite wrote to the
Christian a letter, of which this is a copy." ^

* I subjoin the Arabic text :

d.jL!i\jJu /♦UiLllj <Li r^j£^\ i^J^-lj ^\Ji\ ^^xj (jXum^-llj ?j^lj

ilcU*^^ j^^Wl ^^j^^^^\ j^^\ ^l^j <^ ^^^)lb^ fUip^LaJ U^A^
\A^,^yi^\jSdJ ^\ [j^Jb^j CS^dJ liJ^ys^ Ss <5J j^^l-a:uJl_5 ajljs-^l

ITS AGE AND AUTHORSHIP. [\{

The Hashimite's letter follows immediately on this. He
reminds his friend that he is himself well versed in the
Scriptures, and in the practices and doctrines of the various
Christian sects ; and he proceeds to explain the teaching of
Islam, and .to press its acceptance on him. He begs of his
friend to reply without fear or favour, and promises the
guarantee of the Caliph that no harm should befall him for
any freedom of speech in discussing the merits of their
respective faiths. The reply of Al Kindy is introduced thus :

And the Christian answered him :

In the fame of God most meeciful !

0 Lord male my task easy : let it not he hard : and fulfil the same

with thy hlessing.

''To E"— , son of ^—, from M— , son of M— , the least of the

servants of the Messiah. Peace, Mercy, and Grace be upon thee,

and upon all mankind ! Amen."

And thereupon he proceeds to take up his friend's argu-
ments, point by point.

The Moslem's letter occupies only twenty-two pages ; Al
Kindy's reply the remaining 142. While our Apologist
speaks respectfully of the person of Mahomet, he vigorously
denounces his claims as a prophet, and attacks the whole
system of Islam with uncompromising severity. The latter
part of the Apology is devoted to the proofs of Christianity,
and our Saviour's life and teaching. The reasoning is not,
to our ideas, uniformly sound ; nor are the facts (through-
out deeply tinged with Alyite and Abbasside tendencies),
especially those connected with the life of the Prophet and
the early Caliphate, always accurate. But upon the whole
the argument is conceived with great ability and force, and
the language throughout is flowing, rich, and eloquent. Many
passages, in particular the philippic on Jehad and Martyrdom,
are singularly powerful and impassioned. It is clear that the
Apology can have proceeded from the pen of no ordinary
scholar.

There is no doubt that this book is substantially the same
as that referred to by Al Biruni. At page 26 will be found

iv THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDT.

the passage quoted by him as noticed at the beginning of
this paper. Our Apologist there writes :

*' We know from the Book of Genesis that Abraham lived with
his people four- score years and ten, in the land of Harran, worship-
ping none other than Al Ozza, an idol famous in that land, and
adored by the men of Harran under the name of the Moon, which
same custom prevails among them to the present day. They
conceal no part of their ancestral practices, save only the sacrifice of
human beings. They cannot now offer up human sacrifices openly ;
but they practise the same in secret," ^

In the brief Preface, it will have been observed that the
correspondence is said to have taken place at the Court of Al
Mamun (198-218 A.H.). At the close of the Egyptian MS.
is the following Note :

*' It is related that the subject of these two Epistles reached the
ears of Al Mamun; whereupon he sent for them, and had theni
both read to him without stopping, from beginning to end. He
then declared that he had no ground for interference, nor any cause
against the Christian apologist. There are (added the Caliph) two
religions — one for this world, the Magiai!^, following the precepts of
Zoroaster ; the other for the world to come — the Cheistian-, follow-
ing the precepts of the Messiah. But the true religion is that of
the Unity taught by our Master. That verily is the religion which
serveth both for this life and the next." — p. 165.

This note is wanting in the Constantinople MS. It is no
doubt an addition to the Treatise as originally put forth ; but
of what antiquity and authority there is no ground for
saying.

It is otherwise with the short Preface, which is the same
in both MSS., and probably formed the Introduction to the
Discussion as it at first appeared. Excepting, however, that
it gives the name of the Caliph, the preface adds nothing to
what we gather from the Epistles themselves of the person-

'1/'*' L,'^^^*^"' ^

ITS AGE AND AUTHORSHIP. ^

ality of the disputants, namely, that both lived at the Court
of the Caliph ; that the Mahometan was the cousin of the
Caliph, a Hashimite of Abbasside lineage; and that the
Christian was a learned man at the same Court, of distin-
guished descent from the tribe of the Beni Kinda, and held
in honour and regard by AI Mamiin and his nobles. But the
names and further identification of the disputants are with-
held, from motives of prudence,— ''in case it might do harm."
From the passage in Al Biruni, however, it is evident that
in his time (390 a.h.) the Discussion was currently received
under the title, " The Eeply of Abd al Masih Ibn Ishdc al
Kindy, to the Epistle of Abdallah ibn Ismail al Hashimy."
The epithets Abdallah and Abd al Masih are of course noms
de plume. It is possible that the other names (in italics) are
so also ; — Isaac and Ishmael symbolizing the Christian and
Moslem antagonists.

Whether this be so or no, the name of Tbn Ishdc al Kindy
has occasioned the surmise in some quarters that our
Apologist was the same as the famous "Philosopher of
Islam,'' Abu Yusuf ibn Ishac al Kindy, who also flourished
at the Court of Mamun and his Successor. There can, how-
ever, be little or no doubt that the famous Al Kindy was a
Mahometan by profession. As a Failsitf, or philosopher, he
was, it may be, not a very orthodox professor ; but, at any
rate, there is no reason to suppose that he had any leaning
towards Christianity : on the contrary (as we shall see
below), he wrote a treatise to refute the doctrine of the
Trinity. His father, or grandfather, was governor of Kufa,
a post that could be held by none other than a Mahometan ;
and Al Ashath, the renowned chief of the Beni Kinda, who
was converted in the time of Mahomet, and married Abu
Bekr's sister, is said to have been his ancestor ; whereas our
Apologist glories in his Christian ancestry.

On the philosopher Al Kindy, de Sacy gives us an inter-
esting note. After showing that D'Herbelot was mistaken
in calling him a Jew,^ and citing the authority of Abul
Earaj and Ibn Abi Oseiba for regarding him as a Mussul-
1 On this, see notes in Slane's Ibn Khallican, vol. i. pp. xxvii and 355.

vi THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

man, he mentions three considerations which might be urged
against this view. First : In the catalogue of his writings
there is none relating to the Coran or to Islam. Second :
Al Kindy was one of the translators of Aristotle, familiar
with Greek and Syriac ; and men of that stamp were mostly
Christians. Third: In the Bibliotheque Imperiale there is
a MS. (257) entitled A Defence of the Christian Religion
(apparently identical with our Apology), written in Syriac
characters, but in the Arabic language, the author of which
is named Ydciib Kindi.

*' Of these objections (continues de Sacy) the last alone merits atten-
tion ; but it may be met by these counter-considerations. In the
Preface the author is not named. The work is only said to have
been written by a person attached to the court of Al Mamun, a
Christian of Kindian descent. It is called 'The Treatise of Al
Kendy, the Jacobite.^ ^ It is most likely by a misunderstanding,
or with the view of increasing thereby the value of the work, that
it has been ascribed to the authorship of Yacub Kindy. This
suspicion acquires greater force, as in the catalogue of Syrian
Avriters, written by Ebed Jesu, we find a certain Kendi named as
the author of a religious treatise ; and the Kendi in question (the
same without doubt as the writer of our Syrian MS. (257), or at
least whose name has been assumed as such) lived, according to an
historian cited by Assemanus, about 890 a.d. (280 a.h.), a date to
which it is little likely that Yacub Kendi survived. . . . Por the rest
we may suppose that Kendi, in pursuit of his philosophical studies,
had embraced opinions opposed to Mahometan orthodoxy, and that
this led to his faith being suspected — a thing which has occurred to
many Christian philosophers, and among the Jews happened to the
famous Maimonides." '^

But this Kendi of Ebed Jesu, whoever he was, could not
possibly have been our Apologist, for he flourished towards
the end of the third century of the Hegira, whereas the
Apology (as I hope to establish below) was certainly written
during the reign of Al Mamun, near the beginning of that
century. The passage from Assemanus, referred to by de

1 j^^yUJl ^^xSS\ C-JUi . This, of course, is a mistake, as our Apologist

■svas a" staunch Nestorian. There may have been some other Kendy a Jacobite;
or rather the epithet ihn Yacub has been so misunderstood and misapplied.

2 Eelation de L'Egypte par Abd Allatif, M. de Sacy, Paris, 1810, p. 487.

ITS AGE AND AUTHORSHIP. yjj

Sacy, consists of a note on chapter cxlii. of Ebed Jesu's
Catalogue (in Syriac verse) of Christian authors. The verse
and note are as follows :

[Verse.]—'' Ca^divs fecit ingens volumen Bisputationis et Fidei,

[Note.]— ''Candius, \dc^ ^\ , Ebn Canda, hoc est Candiae filius;
who flourished under the JS'estorian Patriarch Joannes lY., a.d. 893.
Others rc-fer the authorship to Abu Yusuf Yacub ibn Ishac al Kindi;
but he, according to Pocock and Abul Paraj, was a Mahometan . . .
Eut the Candius whom Ebed Jesu mentions was a Nestorian, not a
Mahometan, and wrote in the Syrian language, not in Arabic." ^

If any doubts were entertained of the religious principles
of Abu Yusuf ibn Ishac, they must be set at rest by the fact
that he wrote a treatise to disprove the doctrine of the
Trinity. It was answered by Yahya ibn Adi, a Jacobite
writer, whose pamphlet appears as No. 108 in Steinschneider's
list.2 The same is in the Vatican Library (Codex, 127,
f. 88), and was kindly copied out for me by Prof. Ign.
Guidi. In this tract, the attack of Ibn Ishac is quoted and
replied to passage by passage ; and the tenor of the writing
leaves no doubt of the antagonism of the writer to Christianity.

On all these grounds, we must clearly look for the author
of our Apology elsewhere.^ But before doing so, it may be
expedient to notice the conjecture of de Sacy, that the Apology
may have been ascribed to Abu Yusuf ibn Ishac al Kindy,
either by a misunderstanding, or as a pious fraud with the
view of gaining for it greater celebrity and weight.

As to the supposed misunderstanding, it seems doubtful
whether, in reality, the Apology ever was so ascribed, except-

1 Bibliotheca Orientalis, Assemani, a.d. 172.5, vol. iii. p. 213. The assumption
that he wrote in Syriac is unfounded. But the treatise was probably translated into
that language, as well as transliterated from the original into Syriac writing.

2 Pol. und Apolog. Literatur in Arab. Sprache, Leipzig, 1877, p. 126.

2 Those who care to prosecute the inquiry further, will find an elaborate
article on Al Kindi der Fhilosoph der Araber, Ein Vorbild seiner Zeit und seiner
Volkes, by Dr. G. Fliigel, Leipzig, 1857. The paper is founded mainly on the
authority of Ibn Abi Oseiba and Ibn Kufti, and is learned and exhaustive. A
curious astrological treatise by the same Al Kindy is given by Dr. Otto Loth,
p. 261, Morgenldndische Forschungen, Leipzig, 1875. The cycles of Arabian
history are there ascribed to astronomical conjunctions, and the essay closes with
a prophecy of the eventual ascendancy of Islam over all other faiths.

There is also a short article with an exhaustive list of Ibn Ishac's works, bjr
Ibn Joljol, the Spanish writer, in the Bibliotheca Escurialensis, Casiri, Matriti,
1760 A.i). vol. i. p. 357.

viii THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

ing as a mere conjecture in modern times. The misunder-
standing, whatever it may have been, has arisen apparently
from the similarity of name and tribe, as given in the
quotation by Al Biruni.

The notion that, with the view of gaining greater weight,
a paper purporting to be in refutation of Islam and estab-
lishment of Christianity, should have been ascribed to a
Mahometan philosopher, will hardly, I think, be seriously
held. What possible advantage could have been expected
from an attempt to palm off a polemical work of the kind on
an enemy of the Christian faith, who had himself attacked
one of its cardinal doctrines ? There is, moreover, no trace in
the Apology itself of any design to rest upon the authority of a
great name. The writer's identity, as we have seen, is care-
fully suppressed. The only thing common to the " Philo-
sopher" and the Author, which appears throughout the work,
is that the Author was learned, and went by the tribal title of
Al Kindy ; but that tribe was surely numerous and dis-
tinguished enough to embrace other men of letters and noble
birth at the Court of Al Mamun. Leaving now the " Philo-
sopher," we may proceed, therefore, to consider the internal
evidence furnished by the book itself of its age and authorship.

I have said that the name of Al Mamun, though given
in the Preface, occurs nowhere in the Epistles themselves.
But the manner in which the Caliph is throughout referred
to, accords entirely with the assumption that they were
written at his Court. He is spoken of as the paternal
cousin of the Moslem writer ; his just and tolerant sway
is repeatedly acknowledged by Al Kindy ; the descent
of the Dynasty from the family of Mahomet is over and
again referred to, and our Author prays that the Empire
may long be perpetuated in his Patron's line. All this is
perfectl}^ natural, and in entire consistency with the ascrip-
tion of the work to a courtier in the reign of Al Mamun.

Not less remarkable are the propriety and accuracy of all
the historical notices. For example, when tracing the fate of
the four Examplars of the Coran deposited by Othman in
the chief cities of the Empire, our Apologist tells us that the

ITS AGE AND AUTHORSHIP. ix

copy at Medina disappeared in " the reign of terror, that is,
in the days of Yezid ibn Muavia " ; and that the manuscript
at Mecca was lost or burnt in the sack of that city by
Abu Saraya, " the last attack made upon the Kaaba." ^
This is exactly what a person writing some fifteen years
after the event, and in the reign of Al Mamun, would say ;
for the siege of Mecca was then, in point of fact, the last
which had taken place, under the insurgent Abu Saraya, in
the year 200 a.h. Had the Apology been written later on, say
in the fourth century, the ** latest attack " on Mecca would
not have been that of Abu Saraya, but of Soleiman Abu Tahir
in 317 A.H. So also, in illustrating the rapine and plunder
of the early Moslem campaigns, Al Kindy mentions, as of
a similar predatory and ravaging character, the insurrection
of Babek Khurramy, and the danger and anxiety it occa-
sioned thereby " to our lord and master the Commander of the
Faithful." This rebellious leader, as we know, had raised the
standard of revolt in Persia and Armenia aome years before,
routed an army of the Caliph, and long maintained himself
in opposition to the Imperial forces ; and the notice, as one
of an impending danger then occupying men's minds, is
precisely of a kind which would be natural and apposite
at the assumed time, and at no other.^ Once more, in
challenging his friend to produce a single prophecy which
had been fulfilled since the era of Mahomet, he specifies
the time that had elapsed as "a little over 200 years,"
and uses the exact expression to denote the period, which
would fall from the pen of a person writing about the era,
215 A.H., when we assume the work to have been written.^
While the incidental references to dates and historical facts are
thus in exact and happy keeping with the professed age of the

1 p. 81. ., < / 1 ..\

2 p. 47. The name is erroneously printed ,^J^' uliowl. But there

can be no doubt that Babek Khurramy ^/>~ ^. ^ is the correct reading.

words imply "two hundred and odd years," or a little over 200. The edict
ao-ainst the eternity of the Coran was issued I thmk about the year 211 or
212 A.H. ; and our Discussion took place probably a year or two later, say

215 A.H.

X THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

work, there is throughout not a single anachronism or forced
and unnatural allusion, — which in a person writing at a later
period, and travelling over so large a field, would hardly have
been possible.

Still more striking are the aptness and propriety of the
political allusions. These are in the strictest affinity, not
only with the traditions of an Abbasside Dynasty, but of
a Court which had become partizan of the Alyite faction,
which freely admitted Motazelite or latitudinarian sentiments,
and which had just declared the Coran to be created and
not eternal. The Omeyyad race are spoken of with virulent
reprobation ; the time of Yezid is named the " reign
of terror " ; and Hajjaj, with his tyranny and the imputation
of his having corrupted the Coran, is referred to in the bitter
terms that were current in that day. Abu Bekr, Omar, and
Othman are treated as usurpers of the Divine right of succes-
sion which (it is implied) vested in Ali. I need hardly point
out how naturally all this accords with the sentiments pre-
dominating at the Court of Al Mamun ; but which certainly
would not have been tolerated some forty or fifty years later. ^

The freedom of our Author's treatment of Islam would
have been permitted at none but the most latitudinarian
Court. He casts aside the prophetical claims of Mahomet,
censures some of his actions in the strongest language, repro-
bates the ordinances of Islam, especially those relating to
women, and condemns Jehad with scathing denunciation. It
is difficult to conceive how such plain-speaking was tolerated
even at the Court of Al Mamun ; at any other, the Apology
would have had small chance of seeing the light, or the writer
of escaping with his head upon his shoulders. That the
work did (as we know) gain currency can only have been
due to its appearance at this particular era.

These remarks apply with very special force to the section
on the Coran, since it seems highly probable that the
Apology was written shortly after the famous edict of
Al Mamun which denied the eternity of the Moslem
Scriptures. The composition of the Coran is assailed by

1 See my Eede Lecture on the Early Caliphale, Smith and Elder, 1881, p. 21.

ITS AGE AND AUTHORSHIP. xi

our Author in the most incisive style. First, a Christian
Monk inspired it, and then Rabbis interpolated it with
Jewish tales and puerilities. It was collected in a loose
and haphazard way. Besides the authorized edition imposed
by the tyranny of Othman (and subsequently depraved by
Hajjaj),^ Ali, Obey ibn Kab, and Ibn Masud, had each their
separate exemplars. Having been compiled, if not in part
composed, by different hands, and thrown unsystematically
together, the text is alleged to be in consequence full of con-
tradictions, incoherencies, and senseless passages. A great
deal of this section, though in less irreverential language,
was no doubt very similar to the kind of arguments held by
the rationalistic Motazelites of the day, and favoured by Al
Mamun. For we know that it was after a hot and prolonged
discussion that the Coran was proclaimed by Al Mamun to be
created. It is therefore altogether in accord with the proba-
bilities of the case, that this particular phase of the argument
should have been (as we actually find it) treated by our Author
at great length and with a profusion of tradition possessing
little authority, although popular in that day, — a kind of
rank mushroom growth springing out of Abbasside faction.
The tables were soon turned on this free-thinking generation,
who in their turn suffered severe persecution; and never
before or afterwards did such an opportunity occur, as our
Apologist enjoyed, under the very shadow of a Caliph's
Court, to argue out his case with his enemy's weapons
ready to his hand.

Al Kindy makes a strong point of the hypocrisy of the
Jews and Bedouins who lived at the rise of Islam, their
superficial conversion, and the sordid and worldly motives
by which, when the great Apostacy followed the Prophet's
death, they were brought back to Islam, " some by fear and
the sword, some tempted by power and wealth, others drawn
by the lusts and pleasures of this life." It was just the same,

1 The action of Al Hajjaj (who has been sufficiently misrepresented and abused
by the Abbasside faction) appears to have been mainly confined to certain additions
in the way of diacritical marks. See Slane's Ibn Khallikan, vol. i. p. 359 and
note 14, p. 364. But it was natural, at an Abbasside Court, to vilify that great,
but stern. Viceroy of the Omeyyads.

xii THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

he said, with the Jews and Maglans of his own day. And
to make good his point he proceeds to quote a speech of the
Caliph, made in one of the assemblies which he was in the
habit of holding. The passage is so remarkable, and so illus-
trative of the character of Al Mamun, that, at the risk of
lengthening my paper, I give it here in full : —

And I doubt not but (the Lord bless thee, my Friend ! ) thou
rememberest that which passed at an assembly of

. TVT' - the Commander of the Faithful, to whom it had
Al Mamun. , ' , .

been related in respect of one of his Courtiers that,
though outwardly a Moslem, he was at heart a reprobate Magian:
whereupon the Caliph delivered himself (as I have been informed)
in the following terms :

" By the Lord ! I well know that one and another (and here the
Caliph named a whole company of his Councillors), though pro-
fessing Islam, are free from the same ; they do it to be seen
of me ; while their convictions, I am well aware, are just the
opposite of that which they profess. They belong to a class
who embrace Islam, not from any love of this our religion,
but thinking thereby to gain access to my Court and share in the
honour, wealth, and power of the Realm; they have no inward per-
suasion of that which they outwardly profess. Truly their case, to
my mind, resembleth the too common one of the Jews, who, when
Islam was promulgated, held by the Tourat and the Law of Moses.
And, indeed, I know of one and another (here the Caliph named
a whole band of his Courtiers) who were Christians, and embraced
Islam unwillingly. They are neither Moslems nor Christians, but
impostors. And how shall I deal with these, seeing that the curse
of God is upon them all ? When they abandoned the Magian religion
(the vilest and most abominable of all religions), it was incumbent
on them to hold firmly by the new religion which they embraced,
instead of by that which they left only in appearance and hypocrisy;
and so likewise, with those who abandoned the Christian faith (the
most amenable of all religions to the effulgence of Islam and the
truth of its creed). But herein, I have the example and precedent
of the Prophet (on whom be blessing!^). For many of his com-
panions, and familiars, and near of kin professed to follow him and
be his Helpers; whilst he (on whom be blessing!) knew well

1 This pious salutation at mention of the Prophet, universal among the Maho-
metans, occurs only here in the Caliph's address, and not in any other part of our
Author's writing.

ITS AGE AND AUTHOESHIP. xiii

enough that they were all the time hypocrites, opposed at heart
to what they outwardly professed. These ceased not to study evil,
and to plot, to seek his fall, and to assist the Idolaters against
him ; insomuch that a company of them lay in wait at a certain
pass to affright his mule, so that it might throw him, and he be
killed. But the Lord delivered and protected him from their
snares, and the evil they thought to visit him with. Notwith-
standing, he intreated them courteously to the end, even until
the Lord took his spirit unto himself. Thus he guarded himself
by kindness and courtesy against their machinations. Where-
fore, it well becometh me that I should follow his example. Then
after his death they all apostatized, seeking both outwardly and in
their hearts, both in secret and in public, to scatter Islam and
destroy the empire; until, at the last, the Lord helped the same,
and healed the schisms ; and that he did by casting into the hearts
of certain amongst them the lust of empire and love of the world ;
and so the government was strengthened and the divisions recon-
ciled, by means of kindness and forbearance. Thus the Lord
fulfilled that which he hath fulfilled for us ; and herein, no thanks
or praise to any but to the Lord alone ! Now, therefore, I will no
more make mention of that which I have seen and heard in respect
of these my Courtiers; but I shall treat them with courtesy and
forbearance until the Lord decide between us, and he is the best
of all decider s.^^

Now, unless my lord, the Commander of the Faithful, had spoken
thus openly in the ears of the nobles at his Council (the Lord exalt
the same !), and the tidings thereof had spread, and the present
ones had told the absent ones, I had not ventured to make mention
of it here. Thou art witness that I have not added one thing
thereto. And I only remind thee now (for no long time has
elapsed) of that which passed at this assembly, in order to bring
up clearly the subject of the great Apostacy, and to show that the
people were not reconverted therefrom unto Islam, but through
love of the world, and to build up this Empire under which they
now live. In proof thereof, if the Lord will, this answer will
suffice for aU enlightened persons who may peruse my book.—
Page 66. ^

It may appear strange that the Caliph should have ex-
pressed himself in this outspoken way regarding many of
his Courtiers in a public assembly. But, certainly, the

xiv THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

sentiments are in entire accord with what we know of tlie
character and principles of Al Mamun, and also with the
social and religious elements prevailing at Merve, where he
first assumed the Caliphate, as well as at Baghdad, where he
shortly after fixed his Court. It is difficult to believe that
any one would have ventured to fabricate such a speech ;
or, supposing it genuine, that it should have been quoted by
other than a contemporaneous writer.

I proceed to notice what evidence there is in the Epistles
that the disputants were what they profess to have been,
that is, persons of some distinction at the Court of Al
Mamun. The Apology, it is true, from its antiquity and
rhetoric, may well stand upon its own intrinsic merit;
but, undoubtedly, the controversy is invested with fresh
life and interest when we know that the combatants were
not fictitious, but real personages.

First, as regards the Hdshimite ; it is conceivable, of course,
that he is an imaginary person, set up to be aimed at as the
representative of Islam ; a mere catspaw, to draw forth the
Christian's argument. This was the surmise of one of the
learned Ulema from Constantinople, to whom I showed the
book ; but his chief reason for so thinking was that the argu-
ment for Islam was weakly stated, and that a much better case
might have been made out.^ In opposition to this view, it may
be observed that the personality and character of the Moslem
are sustained consistently throughout both Epistles. Every
notice and allusion is in keeping with his assumed Hashimite
and Abbasside descent, his relationship to the Caliph, his
friendship for our Apologist, and the guarantee of freedom
and safety obtained by him for the discussion. There is
besides more than one incident of personal life. Thus we
have a curious passage on the use of the Cross, in which
Al Kindy reminds his friend that repeatedly in circumstances
of danger he had used the sign, or ejaculated an appeal to
the Cross, admitting thus the virtue of the same ; and on
one of these occasions, he specifies the place (Sabat al Medain)

^ lie also objected to the word Qarib (p. 3) as applicable by a Mabometan to a
Christian.

ITS AGE AND AUTHOESHIP. XV

where it occurred. Elsewhere he refers to words used by his
friend in another discussion about "the Soul." In ridiculino'

the notion that the name of Mahomet is written on the
heavenly throne, the Christian says that none even of his
friend^s own party held to that conceit. And, again, he
apologizes for the warmth of his language by reminding
his friend that it was he who had begun the controversy.^

As regards A I Kindy himself, his personality transpires
throughout the whole Apology. With a strong attachment
to the Nestorian faith, he ever displays a violent aversion
from Jews and Magians, on whom, upon all occasions, he be-
stows the most contumelious epithets. While giving honour
to the Hashimites as chief of the Coreish, he not the less vaunts
the superior and kingly dignity of the Beni Kinda, as the
blue blood of the Arabs, acknowledged to have been supreme
over the whole Peninsula; and he apologizes from his own
stand-point as an Ishmaelite, whenever the argument leads
him to prefer the lineage of Isaac to that of Ishmael. The
repeated assertion of his own learning, experience, and
knowledge of mankind and of the various systems of religion
and philosophy, is also in keeping with the vein of conscious
superiority, tinged with a slight spice of vanity, which runs
throughout the Apology.

Add to this that, amidst much that is crude in our view
and even illogical, the work is characterized throughout
by a singular command of the Arabic language, and that
the argument rises at times, — as in the passage on Jehad
and Martyrdom, — to a high pitch of impassioned eloquence,
and it must be evident that the writer was a man of
remarkable learning and attainments. The Apologist,
therefore, could have been no obscure individual. There
seems no ground whatever for doubting that he was
in reality what he professes naturally and consistently
throughout the Apology to be, a scion of the noble Kinda
tribe, belonging further to a branch which had clung un-
waveringly to their ancestral faith. For the suspicion of a
pious fraud in the assumption of that character, there is not,
1 See pp. 129, 114, 95, and 121.

xvi THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

so far as I can see, any reasonable ground whatever ; nor
(even if internal evidence admitted the hypothesis) would
there have been any sensible advantage in adopting that
position.

To sum up, then ; I hold that the work may take its
stand, on internal evidence, as a composition certainly of
the era at which it professes to have been written. Further,
there is the strongest probability, amounting almost to
certainty, that it is the genuine production of a learned
Christian, a man of distinction at the Court of Al Mamun,
bearing the tribal title of Al K'lndy. And still further,
there is a fair presumption that the Apology was written
as a reply to the Appeal prefixed to the Apology, and
addressed bona fide to his friend by the Moslem, Abdallah
Hashimy, the Caliph's cousin.

There are good grounds for this belief apart altogether
from the evidence of Al Biruni. But that evidence, as we
have seen, is conclusive of the fact that the work was
current in the Fourth century, and that it was so under a title
corresponding with the account of the authorship as recited
in the Preface to the Apology. Al Biruni's testimony is, to
my mind, chiefly valuable as serving to remove a doubt which
must occur to the most casual reader ; and that is, whether
any one could have dared, at the Metropolis of Islam, to
put forth a production written in so fearless and trenchant
a spirit against Islam ; and whether, this having been done,
the obnoxious treatise would not have been immediately
suppressed. Religion and the Civil power are, in the
Mahometan system, so welded together, that the Icesa
Majestas of the State is ever ready to treat an attack on
Islam as high treason of an unpardonable stamp. But the evi-
dence of Al Biruni shows that, having survived, our Apology
was actually in circulation, in a Mahometan country, a
century and a half after the time at which it first appeared.
This is almost a greater marvel than that it should even have
been written in the first instance ; for, under the tolerant
sway of the free-thinking Al Mamun, that was possible,
which a few years later would have been utterly impossible.

ITS AGE AND AUTHORSHIP. xvii

And one may be very certain that, when Orthodox views
again prevailed, every effort would be made to suppress and
exterminate an Apology, obnoxious not only for its attack
on the religion of the State, but also for the political
sentiments therein advocated as to the divine right of Ali,
the usurpation of Abu Bekr, and the manner in which
the Coran was compiled. But the work had in all likelihood
already so spread during the reign of Al Mamun and his
immediate Successors (who shared his Motazelite views),
that its entire suppression became, no doubt on that account,
impossible. And so copies survived, although stealthily, here
and there in Mahometan countries. But why this remark-
able book was not better known and valued in Christian
countries, is very strange, indeed to my mind altogether
unaccountable.

Admitting all that has been advanced, it will still remain
a question of rare interest who this unknown " Al Kindy,
the Christian," was. In a letter from Dr. Steinschneider to
Prof. Loth, a suggestion is thrown out which might possibly
lead to the identification of our Author. The trace is there
given of a Emtathms al Kindy, mentioned among other
Christian and Jewish names by Casiri in his Bibliotheca
Arabica, as one of the translators of Aristotle, or copyists of
Greek works. May this not have been our Apologist ? ^

Further inqury in this, or some other similar direction,
might possibly throw more certain light on the authorship.
Other MSS. of the Apology, whether in the East or in our
European Libraries, might also with advantage be compared
with the printed version to elucidate the purity of the text,
and especially of such passages as appear to be imperfect or
uncertain in the MSS. from which this edition was printed.^

1 Dr. Steinsclineider's letter will be found at page 315 of the Zeitschrift der
Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, vol. xxix. The passage referred to m Casin is as
follows: ^JoUl t^Lk^^ \pj ^j>;J^ ^^^ • • • '^^^Z ^' i^^.
Bibliotheca Arab. Hisp. Michaelis Casiri, Matriti, 1760 a.d., vol. i- P- 310.

2 There is the MS. in Paris referred to by de Sacy as No. 2o7 of the Biblio-
th^que Orientale. And there is also that mentioned by Steinschneider, No. 112,
'^Kmdi, Jacob? Vertheidigiiug der Christlichen Religion gegen den Islam, in
Karschunischen MSS." See his Polemische und apologttische Liter at ur tn
Arahischer Sprache, Leipzig, 1877, p. 131. In this last, the letter of
al Hashimy (we are told) is given in an abridged form.

xvili THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

The inquiry is not unworthy the attention of the most
eminent of our Oriental scholars. The Apology is absolutely
unique of its kind. In antiquity, daring, rhetoric, and
power, we have nothing in the annals of the Mahometan
controversy, at all approaching it. And any research that
might throw light upon the origin of the Argument, the
circumstances of our Author, the authenticity of the work,
and the genuineness of the text handed down to us, must
possess not only a literary interest, but in some respects a
practical and important bearing on the same struggle which
is being waged to-day, as engaged the labours of Abdallah
the Hashimite and Abd al Masih, Al Kindy, the Christian,
in the days of Al Mamun.

I have to express my acknowledgments to Prof. Ignatius
Guidi of Eome, to Dr. Fritz Hommel of Miinchen, and to
Dr. Steinschneider of Berlin, for their very kind assistance
in the prosecution of this inquiry. To the first, I feel
specially grateful for his goodness in copying out for me
the entire controversy in which Abu Yusuf al Kindy appears
as an opponent of the doctrine of the Trinity.

THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY

IN REPLY TO THE

LETTER OF ABDALLAH THE HASHIMITE.

The letter of tlie Mahometan Advocate opens with the

salutation of peace and mercy. This, though x ..

, !. "^ ' o Letter of THE

unusual with Mahometans when addressmg In- HAsHiMiTEto

fidels, he justifies by the example of the Prophet, ^ Kindy

who made no difference, as to his style of address, ^^^* ^"^^^'

between Zimmies (protected Jews and Christians) and true

Believers.^ He then speaks of the esteem in which Al Kindy

was held by the Caliph, his cousin, and of his own warm

regard for him. He dwells on his Friend's noble birth, and

expresses admiration for his distinguished piety, culture and

learning. It was in full accord with the teaching of the

Prophet, that he now invited him to embrace Islam, and

discuss in a kindly and gracious spirit the merits of their

respective creeds.^ He was himself familiar with Christianity

in all its forms. He had read the Jewish and Christian

Scriptures, the several Books of which he names in order.

He was acquainted with the tenets of the different sects ; —

the Melchite, belonging to the Romish Church ; the Jacobite,

whom he denounces as the most unreasonable of the

schismatics; and the Nestoriany to which body his Friend

was attached, and which he describes in favourable terms ;

1 See, for example, Mahomet's epistle to John ibn Eubah, the Christian Chief
of Aylah, Life of Mahomet,^. 457.

2 He quotes Sura xxix. 46, ** Dispute not with the people of the Book
otherwise than in the most gracious manner."

2 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

for it was the N^estorian branch of the church which was
known to Mahomet, and praised by him in the Coran. He
was familiar with the rites, prayers, fasts and festivals of the
various churches ; and had not only visited their Convents
and Holy places, but had held discussions with their
bishops, priests and learned men. He was not of the
vulgar herd, which heaped abuse indiscriminately on
all Christians. Conversant with their sects and doctrines,
he could appreciate what was good in them. He was
thus in a position to call upon his Friend to renounce
the errors of his creed, and embrace the grand Catholic
faith of Abraham, their common ancestor, with all the
attendant blessings of Islam. He then recounts the or-
dinances and obligations of the Mahometan religion, as
Prayer, Fasting, Pilgrimage, Jehad ; dwells on the delights
of Paradise that were open to his Friend, and warns him to
escape the pains of Hell — supporting his appeal by numerous
quotations from the Coran. He had only to embrace the
true faith, and he would at once enter on his proper rank
and dignity at Court, and share in all the good things of
Islam, both in this life and the next. Among the former
he mentions the privilege of marrying four wives (liable
to divorce if they did not please him) and slave- girls. He
closes with an affectionate appeal; and if he should,
notwithstanding, choose to hold by the Christian faith,
urges him to answer his epistle without fear or favour,
under royal guarantee of absolute security.

The Apology of Al Kindy begins with a complimentary
R p F A ^^^^^ss i^ which he expresses gratitude for

Kindy. the interest shown in his welfare, and an
Introduction assurance of lasting friendship. He offers a

^ ' ^^' prayer for the long life and prosperity of the
Caliph, whose favour he acknowledges with gratitude beyond
his power adequately to express. Then follows a petition
for help and guidance from Him who had promised that
when his servants were brought before kings and governors,
it should be given them in that self- same hour what they
speak, etc. (quoting Matthew x. 18, 19).

THE TEINITY. 3

The first section is devoted to a defence of the doctrine
of the Trinity, in which the argument is, to The Trinity
our apprehension, often weak and far-fetched. (25-41).
His Friend had invited him to embrace the Catholic, or
Hanyfite^ faith of Abraham, their common father. Our
Apologist answers that the Hanyfite faith was in reality
the idolatrous religion of the Sabeans, which the Patriarch
professed before his conversion to the worship of the One
true God. " Which of these two religions of Abraham," he *-
asks, " am I to adopt ? If it be the Unity, I reply that^Ehe;
revelation thereof made to Abraham was inherited by Isaac, \
not by Ishmael, and descended in the line not of, the Arabs, I
but of the Israelites ; and it is for them, and not for you,/
to invite me to the same.'' After adducing certain meta-
physical arguments in favour of the Trinity, he quotes
largely from the books of the Old Testament to show that
the mystery, though not fully unfolded until the advent
of Christ, was plainly fore-shadowed in the Jewish
Scriptures. He asserts that the Trinity, as well as the
Sonship of the Messiah, are misrepresented in the Coran, /
and that the notion of a Female element in the Godhead '
was borrowed by Mahomet from the Jews. He denies
that, as stated in the Coran, Christians hold that " God
is one of Three," or that " there are three Gods," — an
accusation resting on the heretical dogmas of sects, like
the Marcionites, "ignorant dogs," who did not deserve
even the name of Christian ; and he appeals to his Friend's
intimate knowledge to bear him out in his assertion of the
true doctrine held by the Church, namely, that there is
" One God in three Persons."

Our Author is here profuse in quotation from the Old
Testament. For example, he refers to the substitution of
the Eam for Isaac ; the revelation of Jehovah as I am
that I am ; " the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob " ;
the use of the plural number in such passages as, " Let Us
go down," which he argues was, according to Hebrew
usage, not honorific, but based on the mystery of trinity
in unity ; the three Angels who visited Abraham ; ** The

4 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

Lord thy God is One Lord ; " " Ood made the heavens,
by his Word, and his BreaW (Ps. xxxiii. 6); the Tersanctus
of Isaiah, etc. Our Apologist "could rain down showers
of similar evidence, if it were not to make his book prolix
and wearisome." ^

Our Author now addresses himself to his Friend's appeal.

, Of the person of Mahomet, connected as Al

prophetic claim Hashimy was by descent with that illustrious

a proper sub- personage, he would not say one offensive

ject for discus- ^^^.^^2 5,^^ his claim to be a prophet stood

sion (41). ^^

on diiierent ground, and was open to challenge.

The summons to believe, coming from any but a tyrant,

must be based on reason sufficient to carry conviction.

He would therefore discuss the Prophet's career from

beginning to end. It was a worthy controversy, in which

party spirit and bigotry might well be put aside.

There follows a brief summary of the Prophet's career.

Brief outline ^"^ early life an orphan, and an idolater, he

of Mahomet's was raised to affluence by his marriage with

life (42, 43). Khadija. He then sought to reform his people

by claiming to be their leader; but, failing in this,

because of their pride and tyranny, he assumed the

prophetic office, and persuaded the Arabs to accept his

teaching, — an ignorant and debased race, who knew

neither the beginning nor the issue of the path on which

they were entering. He gained them over by yielding

to their national love of raids and forays, — and it was

1 The reasoning is sometimes curious, as in the recognition of three Persons
in **the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Among
the passages with the plural number is that from the Book of Daniel, " God
speaks to thee, 0 king, saying. To thee We speak, 0 Nebuchadnezzar,''^ — not
* ' I speak,''^ — an expression which I do not trace. Many of Al Kindy's arguments will
hardly carry conviction, especially the metaphysical, though these were probably
cast in a polemical mould attractive at the time. But the only passage as to the
propriety of circulating or translating which I have doubts, is that in which he
asserts the Hanyfite religion of Abraham to have been, not the Catholic faith
of the Unity (as is clearly intended in the Goran), but Sabean idolatry. To
support this view, our Author twists texts of the Goran, as where Mahomet is
commanded to say, "I am the Jlrst Moslem." Mahometan readers will with
reason object to such misrepresentation of their Scripture.

' Our Author never speaks of the Prophet by name, but generally as thy
Master (Sahib).

MAHOMET'S WARLIKE EXPEDITIONS. 5

one of these attacks on a caravan belonging to Abu
Jabl which led to the Prophet's abandoning Mecca with
forty followers. He took refuge in Medina, a poor town
inhabited mostly by Jews; and people's eyes were first
opened to his true character by the unjust occupation of a
plot of land belonging to two orphan children, whereon to
build a Mosque.^

The next section is devoted to the plundering and
warlike expeditions which issued from Medina, xn- ,-,
The first three, commanded by Companions plundering
of the Prophet, are dwelt upon with con- expeditions
siderable power. Hamza, sent out with thirty ^ *"^^^*
followers, met Abu Jahl at Alis with three hundred ; and,
fearing to attack him, retired. Compare this, says Al Kindy,
with the aid given by God to Joshua in the conquest of
the Promised Land; then one chased a thousand, and two
put ten thousand to flight. When Hamza, a believer and
follower of Mahomet, gave place to Abu Jahl, the wor-
shipper of idols, where was the Divine help, and where
the assistant Angels? The captain of the Lord's host
appeared to Joshua before Jericho ; and the Josh. v. vi.
walls of the city fell down at the blast of the Jewish
horns. What parallel can Islam show to that? The next
afiair was under Abu Obeida, who with seventy men went to
Batn Rabigh, to attack Abu Sofian with two hundred : but no
Gabriel appeared to his aid, and he returned empty-handed
from the bootless march. How different this from Moses, to
whose aid, as the Moslems themselves tell us, Gabriel came
and destroyed Pharaoh with his 400,000 followers in the
depths of the sea. The third time, Sad was despatched with
twenty men to intercept a caravan at Kharrar ; but it had
passed a day before, and Mahomet had not known of it. If
Mahomet had been a true prophet, he had not thus been
left in ignorance; for it is the sign of a true prophet
to unfold the unseen, even as Samuel told Saul i Sam. ix.

^ This short summary is not only confused, hut in some points erroneous, as the
notice of Abu Jahl, which is misplaced, and the calumny as to the orphans' plot
of ground.— See Life of Mahomet ^ p. 181.

6 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

of his father's asses being found. Our Saviour said that
^latt.xviii. 16. out of the mouth of two or three witnesses,
every word would be established ; and here, says Al
Kindy, are three convincing evidences.^

The first three expeditions conducted by Mahomet in
person were equally unfortunate, for he missed his plunder
and retired crest-fallen. " Judge now for thyself," our
Author says, ** whether Mahomet could have been a prophet
as thou sayest. And what concern have prophets with
plunder and pillage? Why did he not leave raids and
forays to brigands and highwaymen ? Tell me, wherein the
difference lies between thy Master and Babek Khurramy,
whose insurrection hath caused such grief to our lord the
Commander of the Faithful, and disaster to mankind at
large ? ^ I know well that thou canst not answer this.
And so it continued all through thy Master's life, even
until he died. If a caravan was weak, he attacked it,
plundering and slaughtering ; but if strong, he fell back
and fled. ' There were nine-and-twenty campaigns in which
thy Master engaged in person, besides minor raids and
night attacks, and nine pitched battles. Other expeditions
were led by his Companions."

" Still stranger and more flagrant was the commission

. . ,. ffiven by thy Master to assassinate certain

Assassinations o j j

by Mahomet's persons obnoxious to him. Thus Ibn Rawaha
command (47- was despatched against Oseir ibn Zarim the
'* Jew, whom he slew by guile ; and Ibn Omeir

was sent to make away with Abu Afek, klso a Jew. This
last was an aged man, decrepit and helpless, whom Ibn
Omeir perfidiously stabbed to death while asleep at night
upon his bed, because he had spoken despitefuUy of thy

^ The passages from Scripture, it will be understood, are generally quoted by
our Apologist in exfexso.

2 Babek KJmrramy (the festive or jovial) raised the standard of rebellion in
Persia about the year 202 a.h. In 212 he carried his conquests into Meso-
potamia, and in 214 (just about the time our Apology was written, or shortly
before) he annihilated an entire imperial army. lie continued the rebellion, with
great excesses and cruelty, for twenty years ; and it Avas not till 222 a.h. that he
was overthrown and killed. In the course of his insurrection he is said to have
slain 250,000 men and six generals. See IVeifs Geschichte der (Jhalifen, iii. 301 ;
and Sale's Koran, Prel. Discourse, vol. i. p. 218. The terror of his name at the
era of the Apology makes the illustration particularly apt.

ASSASSINATION. 7

Master. Tell me, now, I pray thee, whether thou hast
anywhere heard or read of so unjustifiable an act ; hath
any revelation ever sanctioned it ; and what kind of
ordinance is this, to slay a man simply for speaking words
of blame ? Had this aged man done anything worthy at
all of death, much less of being assassinated unawares ?
If he spake the truth, should he have been slain for the
same ? And if he lied, still even for that, one is not to
be put to death, but rather chastised that he may refrain
therefrom. My Friend, thou well knowest (the Lord be
gracious unto thee !) how that it is unlawful to disturb
a bird resting in its little nest by night ; how much more
to slay a man, sleeping securely in his bed, and that for
only speaking words of blame ! Is this aught but murder ?
I find not that such an act is justified either by the
law of God, of reason, or of nature. Nay, by my life!
it is but the old work of Satan towards Adam and his
race, ever since he wrought his fall. And how consisteth
all this with the saying of thine (the Lord guide thee
aright, my Friend !) that thy Master " was sent a Blessing
and a Mercy to all mankind." ^

Al Kindy now adverts to one or two other warlike
passages in the Prophet's life. Abdallah ibn other warlike
Jahsh, having been sent towards Mecca with passages (48,
a small party of scouts, attacked a caravan ^^)-
from Yemen, killed the leader, and carried off the spoil
to Medina, where Mahomet, after appropriating the royal
Fifth, gave over the remainder to the captors. The justice
of this proceeding was much canvassed by the citizens of
Medina at the time, and our Author leaves it to his Friend
to draw his own conclusion.^

Equally unjustifiable was the treatment of the Beni
Caynocaa, a Jewish tribe on the outskirts of Expatriation
Medina, who without any fault, or colourable of the Beni
excuse, were besieged and forced to surrender ^jTiocaa.
at discretion. Abdallah ibn Obey, their ally, pleaded for

1 For these assassinations, see Life of Mahomet, pp. 249 and 362.
» Ibid. p. 216.

8 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

them : at his intercession Mahomet spared their lives ;
but banishing them to Syria, he laid hold of their property
and distributed it among his Companions.^ *' I would (says
Al Kindy) that I knew how thy Master reconciled it to
his conscience to seize the goods of a people that had not
injured him, and with whom there was no ground of
quarrel, excepting that he wished to reduce their power,
and that they were very rich. Such is not the wont of
prophets, nor, indeed, of any that believe in God and in
the Last day. I could produce many like things, but
that it would weary the reader ; and what I have said
sufficeth as a sample. But I must say a word as to what
Disaster at befell thy Master on the field of Ohod, when
Ohod. ]jig lower front tooth on the right side was

broken, his lip split open, and his cheek and temple gashed,
at the hands of Otba ; and also what befell Talha, who
lost several of his fingers in warding off the sword
brandished by Ibn Camea over the Prophet's head.^ "With
this compare what our Lord, the Saviour of the world,
did, when one of his followers had his ear cut off, and
the Messiah put it back in its place, whole even as the
other. Now if, when that happened to Talha, thy Master,
in whose defence he lost his fingers, had restored them
and made the hand whole, that indeed had been the sign
of a true prophet. But where were the Angels that they
did not come to his help, and save him from having
his tooth broken, his lip gashed, and his face covered
with blood; — ^he the Prophet of prophets, the Elect of
the elect, the Messenger of the Lord ? Where were they,
that they did not save him as they delivered the prophets
of old — Elijah from the followers of King Ahab ; Daniel
from the lion of Darius ; Ananias and his brethren, the
godly youths, from the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar, and
other prophets and holy men of God? And yet (as ye
hold) Adam and all mankind were created solely on behalf
of this thy Master, whose name is also written on the
Throne of God !

1 life of Mahomet, p. 250. = Ibid, p. 270,

THE WIVES OF MAHOMET. 9

"I turn to another subject. Now, we say that the
bent of thy Master's life doth not answer to the boast
that he ' was sent a Mercy and Blessing to the human
race.' On the contrary, his chief object and concern was
to take beautiful women to wife ; to attack surrounding
tribes, slay and plunder them, and carry off their females
for concubines. His chief delights were, by his own
confession, sweet scents and women — strange proofs these
of the prophetic claim ! ^ His amour with Zeinab wife
of Zeid, I am averse from noticing out of respect for this
my book; — excepting only that I will quote the passage
which he himself gave forth as having come down from
heaven in this matter :

And when thou saidst to him on whom God had bestowed
favour, Keep thy wife to thyself and fear God ; and thou concealedst
in thy mind what God was minded to make known, and thou
fearedst man, — whereas God is more worthy that thou shouldst
fear him. And when Zeid had fulfilled her divorce, We joined
thee in marriage unto her, that there might be no offence charge-
able to Believers in marrying the wives of their adopted sons, after
they have fulfilled their divorce ; and the command of God is to
be fulfilled. There is no offence chargeable to the Prophet in that
which God hath enjoined upon him, according to the ordinance of
God in respect of those that preceded him ; — and the command of
God is a predestined decree. — Sura xxxiii. 36, S?.'*

" This specimen will suffice for men of understanding."
Next is introduced the story of Ayesha's night adventure
with Saf wan, which created a great scandal at Ayesha's mis-
Medina, and made Mahomet suspicious of his adventure.
favourite wife ; — whereupon Ali addressed him in the same
sense, ending with these words : 0 Prophet of Ood I the
Lord hath not straitened thee in this matter, and there are
many other women besides her. " But he would not be per-
suaded, because of his uxorious fondness of Ayesha, whom

1 There is an objectionable passage here, p. 60, lines 4 and 6, which (however
much it may add point to the passage) I would omit in the translation. It is

besides based on a weak tradition,

2 See Life of Mahomet, p. 302.

10 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

only lie married a maiden, and wlio being young and
bewitcliing had possession of his heart (and this was the
cause of the enmity between Ali and Ayesha all their life
long), so that in the end he promulgated a revelation of
her innocence, in Sura Nur — Verily they that slander
married icomen, etc. The story is notorious and needeth
from me no further application." ^

Then follows an enumeration of Mahomet's wives, with
Wives of remarks on certain of them. 0mm Salma, our
Mahomet. Author tells us, was of a jealous temperament,
and wished to avoid the honour of the prophet^s hand
by the excuse that she had several children to tend ; where-
upon Mahomet engaged to bring them up, but in this he
deceived her, for he never fulfilled the promise.^ Of
Zeinab he relates that after Mahomet had thrice sent her
portion of meat she flung it back in his face, whereupon
he swore that he would not go near his wives for a whole
month ; but not having patience to wait till the end, he
approached them after nine-and-twenty days.^ Safia, the
Jewess, was taught by the prophet, when upbraided by
her sister- wives, to answer, saying, Aaron is my father ,
Moses my uncle^ and Mahomet my husband. Muleika, of
the Kinda tribe, when solicited by the prophet to be
his wife, exclaimed. What! shall Muleika give herself to a
mercha)dman ?^ The remaining wives are little more than
mentioned by name ; in all he had fifteen wives and two
1 Cor. vii. slave-girls. " Paul, the Apostle, said. He that
32, 33. /^(if/i^ fl ^/^^^ ^^5 object is how he mMy please
her J etc. ; and he spake the truth, for a man is ever
occupied with what may please his wife. Our Saviour

1 Life of Mahomet, p. 313.

2 Al Kindy therefore calls her " the Deceived." Her excuse and the prophet's
promise are certainly mentioned in tradition ; but I do not recollect anything to
show that in not himself bringing up the children, or adopting them as his own,
Mahomet "deceived" the lady. See Life of Mahomet, p. 300.

'^ The cause of Mahomet's oath is ordinarily attributed to a worse scandal.
Ibid, p. 442.

* A stroke of our Author's at the superiority of the kingly Kinda lineage over
the Coreish, who were a tribe of merchantmen. We shall see that he refers to
this again.

THE EYIDENCE OF PROPHECY. H

also said, iVb man can serve two masters at one and the same

time; he must needs serve one and slight the other. Now,

if it be so that a man cannot serve a single wife and

please her without neglecting his Maker, how much more

must one have been taken up in seeking to please fifteen

wives, besides two that were bond-maids? Add to this

that he was all the while engaged in raids and forays

and military expeditions, in ordering his troops for the

same, in sending out spies, and in planning how to

circumvent his enemies, slay their men, take their women

captive and plunder their goods. How then could thy

Master find leisure from all these cares and pleasures for

fasting and prayer, worship, meditation and preparation

for the life to come ? I am very sure that no prophet in

olden times resembled him in these things."

The next section is on prophecy as the evidence of a

.Divine commission. It is of two kinds. Reve- ^ ^ , _„ „„
/ ^ ^ Prophecy an

^ lation of the past, accredited by miracles, — as evidence of
the account by Moses of the creation and ancient Divine mission
history of man. Second; — Revelation of the

1 future, accredited by fulfilment, either immediately, as
Isaiah's prediction of the destruction of the army of
Sennacherib King of Mosul, and the recovery of Hezekiah ;
or at some future time, as the Promise of the Holy Land,
the return of the Captivity, the Coming of the Messiah,
His death, and the Scattering of the Jews, — foretold by
Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel. Such evidence was required
of all who claimed the prophetic office, and by the issues
of the same they were accepted or rejected. The Messiah,
the Saviour of the world, was the greatest of all the
prophets. They were servants of the Great God ; but he was
His beloved Son, and himself the inspirer of the prophets.
He knew the unseen. No heart was closed, no secret
hidden from him; and He foretold things to come. In
proof are quoted prophecies by Jesus regarding Matthew xxiv.
the destruction of the Temple, his own decease ^' 2-
and the persecutions that should follow. He acquainted
His disciples with the death of Lazarus, and then raised

12 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

him to life again. Our Author concludes with Peter's
threefold denial as foretold by our Saviour, and his bitter
sorrow for the same.

" JSTow, tell me," he proceeds, " what thing thy Master
"Wanting in foretold, or made known, in virtue of which
the case of thou holdest him to be a prophet. If thou
Mahomet (57). gayest that he made known to us the history
of the prophets that went before him, as of Noah, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the Messiah, and others, — I have
a ready answer ; namely, that he told us what we knew
already, and even our very children read at school.
And if thou wilt make mention of such other narratives,
/as of Ad and Thamud, of Salih and his Camel, of the
'Elephant and the like, I reply that these are witless
fables, and old wives' tales, such as we Arabs hear night
and day, and are no proof whatever of a Divine mission.
And so the evidence of the past falleth to the ground.
And if thou sayest that he foretold what was to happen
in the future, it behoveth thee to give instances of the
same ; for over 200 years have elapsed since his time,
and surely something of what he foretold must have
come to pass ere this. But thou knowest, and we all
know, that thy Master never uttered a single prophecy;
and so the other condition also faileth."

"Such being the case, let us see whether there is any
Miracles dis- sign of the second kind of evidence, to wit,
avowed hy of miracles. Now, Mahomet himself hath told
Mahomet (58). ^^ plainly that it was said to him (by the
Almighty), Nothing hindered Us from sending thee with
Sura xvii. 60. Miracles, hut that those of old time gave them
the lie ; that is to say, * If it had not been that thy people
would have called them impostures, even as those of old
did, we should have bestowed on thee the gift of Miracles.'
Now, by my life, what, according to all the rules of logic,
could be a more conclusive answer ! Thou knowest (the
Lord guide thee !), and all they that hear my Apology
know, that thy Master herein disclaimed miracles as a
proof of his mission, because he had not the power of

MIEACLES; CONQUEST OF PERSIA. 13

showing them; and it is not for an impartial man like

thee to turn aside from the truth.

" If thou claimest, as a proof of his mission, that thy

Master and his Companions, notwithstanding „

,-1 p 11. 1 -. , „ ° Saracen con-

they were few and weak, trampled under foot quest of Persia

the mighty kingdom of Persia, with all its no proper evi-
resources, armies, and munitions of war, then ^^^^^ i^^> ^^)'
we answer thee in the words of the Lord to the children
of Israel, 'JsTot because the Lord loved you above all
nations, hath he given you the victory over the Amorites
and Perizzites so that ye have slain them, ravaged their
lands and inherited their cities, but because of the wicked-
ness of these nations, and the greatness of their iniquity,
hath he given you the victory over them/ ^ Thus He
treated even Jerusalem, the city of His choice, the abode
of His prophets, the scene of great wonders and miracles,
whence praise and worship ascended day and night,
the spot where prayer was wont to be answered, the
seat of blessing from above ; — when her citizens rebelled
against Him, set up other gods, denied His signs and forgat
His mercies, thinking they had gotten them by the might
of their own hand, — then the Lord gave up Jerusalem
into the power of that wickedest of mankind, JN^ebuchad-
nezzar, the idolater, who slew the inhabitants thereof, even
that chosen race, and carried them away captive and
their children, and destroyed the House called by His
own name, and took away the holy vessels that were
therein to the abominable Babylon for the service of
idols. Now, wilt thou say that Nebuchadnezzar, in that
he stormed the Holy city, and inflicted these calamities upon
it, was a prophet, because of all this ? Even thus is the
case of thy Master and his followers with this great kingdom
of Persia. For the people were all Magians, wicked and
abominable, the dregs of nations, and the vilest of mankind.
They worshipped the Sun and Fire ; they took to wife
their own daughters, sisters, and mothers ; they rebelled

1 Paraphrased from Deut. ix. 4, 5.

14 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

against the triith, and exalted tliem selves beyond measure ;
in their heathenism they attributed Divinity to those whom
the Lord hath not made to be gods ; they abused His
gifts and corrupted the land, and thought that their
prosperity was verily the work of their own wisdom and
might. Wherefore the Lord gave them into the hands
of those that ravaged their land, slew their men, destroyed
their habitations, made their families captive, and robbed
their goods, so that there remained not a woman amongst
them but was seized as a concubine, nor one of their
children but was led away into slavery. For thus doth the
Lord judge an ungodly people."

Returning to the excuse of Mahomet that he was not
Miracles dis- gifted with miracles, lest his people, as of old,
claimed in the should call them impostures, our Author repeats,
Coran(60). —« By my life! a strange reason to offer to
any man of sense. Allow that the Jews aforetime did give
the lie to the miracles of their prophets, and rejected them,
what then ? As to the Arab tribes they could never have
given them the lie, seeing that no prophet had arisen
amongst them before, nor any Apostle in Arabia, whether
with miracles or without them. Doubtless had thy Master
shown them anything like a miracle, they would have
attested the same, and not given it the lie ; for do we not
see that multitudes of these same Arabs did accept his
ministry, although they saw no miracles, neither heard of
any wonderful work ? But thou well knowest (the Lord pre-
serve thee !) that this argument will not stand inquiry."

"If now, leaving the testimony of the Coran, we turn
F b lous ^^ fables and stories, then we get to such fond tales
tales handed as that of the Wolf which stood howling before
down by tradi- Mahomet ; whereupon he turned to his Companions
^^^ ^ ' ^' saying that this wolf was a deputation from the
Beast of the forests : — ' Wherefore if ye will (continued he)
let us impose upon it certain conditions which they shall
not transgress ; or if ye will we shall let it go free.' They
answered that they did not care to impose conditions ;
then Mahomet made signs to it with his three fingers.

ALLEGED MIRACLES OF MAHOMET. 15

whereupon it turned and went away. Wonderful ! (pro-
ceeding in a strain of irony) that Mahomet should under-
stand the inarticulate bark of a wolf ! Suppose he had said,
This wolf is a messenger from the Almighty to me, could
any one have gainsaid it? Such tales, my brother, are
meant only for ignorant people innocent of reason and the
laws of evidence." Another story of a wolf speaking to
one of the Companions (strange that both miracles should
be in connection with an animal called in the Scriptures
"ravening") he treats with equal contempt. Such conceits
were not for sensible men, and there was no need to dwell
longer on them. He dismisses with similar scorn the legend
of the bull that spoke ; the goat whose empty udders swelled
when touched by Mahomet ; and the tree which advanced
at his call, ploughing up the ground — a tradition rejected
even by intelligent Moslems. More space is given to
the miracle of the Roasted shoulder of mutton sent to the
Prophet by Zeinab the Jewess, which told him that it
was poisoned, and of which Bishr ate and died thereof.
"Either Mahomet alone heard the shoulder speak, and
then why did he conceal the matter, and not prevent Bishr
(a chosen guest) from eating ? or the whole company heard
it, and then Bishr himself would surely have refrained.
There is no escape from the dilemma. Or, Bishr ate on,
perhaps, secure in the company of a prophet whom the
Lord heard alway, and answered his prayers. Why then
did not thy Master pray to his Lord, as the prophets
of old who interceded and the dead were raised to life again ;
even as Elias raised the widow's son, and his disciple
Elisha the son of the Shunamite. And after his death,
virtue yet remained in the bones of Elisha, so that a
dead man placed upon the same revived and 2 Kings xii.
stood upon his feet. Thou knowest that this 21.
is true, for it is in the Scripture, as thou mayest read
in the Book of Kings. There is no difference in the text
between the Jews and Christians ; for though we differ
in religion we agree in the truth of this. Now, why, when
Bishr did eat, was the poison not made harmless ? Then had

16 THE APOLOGY OF AL KmDT.

it been a sign of thy Master's prophetic office : for
prophets and holy men of old were shielded by the Lord
from calamities incident to unbelief, — according to the
promise of our Lord to his disciples in the holy Gospel,
which was fulfilled to them, in that He said, If ye drink
deadly poison, it shall not hurt you ; that is to say, when
ye put forth your claim that men may listen to the
Gospel, this shall come to pass. And they did so, and
published their message by means of these miracles. And
thus great and powerful kings and philosophers and learned
men and judges of the earth hearkened unto them, without
the lash or rod, with neither sword nor spear, nor the
advantages of birth or helpers — with no wisdom of this
world or eloquence or power of language or subtlety of
reason, with no worldly inducement nor any relaxation
of the moral law, but simply at the voice of truth enforced
by miracles beyond the power of man to show.^ And so
there came over to them the kings and great ones of the
earth ; and the philosophers abandoned their systems, and
with all their wisdom and learning betook them to a
saintly life, giving up the delights of this world and their
established usages, and became followers of a company
of poor men, fishers and publicans, who had neither name
nor rank, or any claim other than that they were obedient to
the command of the Messiah, — he that gave them the power
to do such wonderful works. Kow these, if ye will, (the
Lord guide thee, my friend !) are proofs of a Divine
mission, not such silly things as are told of thy Master,
in which there is no reality. As for the miracle of the
pitcher into which they say he thrust his hand, and forth-
with there issued water, so that they drank therefrom,
they and their beasts — the account comes from Mohammed
ibn Ishac (and) Zohri,- and the authority is insufficient;
for even the traditionists themselves are not at one about
the truth of it. Thus the historical evidence altogether fails,

1 In all this a direct contrast is intended with the spread of Islam.

2 The text reads as if Zoliri were a title of Ibn Ishac ; probably a tj'pographical
mistake, as Zohri flourished fifty years earlier — Life of Mahomet^ p. 603, For
the incident referred to see Ibid, p. 369.

FALSE TALES TOLD OF MAHOMET. 17

and the claim must be abandoned. Instead of miracles,
the claim of thy Master was enforced simply by tbe sword.
Whosoever hesitated to acknowledge him a prophet sent
by God, was slain, or spared only on payment of tribute,
as the price of his unbelief.

"Finally, what could be more conclusive proof, if thou
wilt judge impartially (the Lord 'guide thee !),
than this, that thy Master himself cut away the ^ ^T , .
ground from all such tales as are told of him, people not to
in that he said openly and plainly, 'There Relieve such

* hath been no prophet, but his people have told °

* lies about him ; and I am no exception that my people

* should not tell lies about me. Wherefore, whensoever ye

* shall hear aught about me, then turn to the book which

* I have left with you ; and if it conform thereto, and there

* be mention of the same in it, then it is true that I said

* or did what is related of me ; but if there be no mention

* of it in the book, then I am free therefrom, and that which

* is related of me is a lie, and I neither said nor did it/
Wherefore see, my friend, and judge, whether those stories
which thy people tell are to be found at all in the book of
the Coran ; if there be any mention of them, or any trace,
therein, then, by my life ! I will confess that it is true, and
that thy Master did the same. Otherwise he is absolved
from these fictions, and they are goundless lying tales for
which he is not in any wise responsible.

" Of the same kind, but much worse is the tradition

regarding thy Master's obsequies. He desired jjtiojjthat

(so the story runs) that he should not be buried Mahomet

for three days, seeing that the Lord would raise would rise

him to Heaven even as He raised our Saviour Y^^^^J,.,. /

^ 1 J. -u ^ £i. three days (64).
Christ, because he was too honourable to be iett

longer upon the earth. So after he died they refrained

till the fourth day, when, forced by the progress of decay,

they buried him.'' ^

1 Some irrelevant observations follow as to the part taken by Aly and
Abbas in the funeral obsequies. Parts of the work have here somewhat the
appearance of dislocation. The object of introducing the passage is apparently
to show how misleading the traditions of the Prophet 8 life may be.

18 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

"After his decease^ there remained not one of thy
Apostacy of Master's followers that did not apostatize, saving
the Arabs only a small company of his Companions and kins-
^ ^' folk, who were ambitious of succeeding to the

government. Here Abu Bekr displayed marvellous skill,
energy and address, so that the power fell into his hands.
Aly was exceedingly angry thereat ; and people resorted to
him, not doubting that he would succeed ; but the reins were
snatched from his hands, from love of the world and lust of
power. 1 But Abu Bekr persevered, until the apostate tribes
were all brought back to their allegiance, some by kindly
treatment, persuasion and craft, some through fear and terror
of the sword, and others by the prospect of power and wealth
and the lusts and pleasures of this life. And so it came to
pass that they were all in the end converted outwardly, and
not from inward conviction."

To establish this point, our Apologist quotes a speech
Speecli of Al- delivered at an assembly of his courtiers by the
M&mun, Caliph in which he likens the hypocritical con-

the Apostates "^^^^^^^ ^^ *^® Magians, Jews and Christians
were reclaimed of l^is own day, to that of the Jews and hypocrites
by worldly in- in the time of Mahomet, and justifies his own
ducements(G6). forbearance by the Prophet's example, and the
worldly inducements by which the apostates were reclaimed. ^

The objection is here anticipated that if Moses and Joshua
Mahomet attacked and slew the Canaanites, took their

showed no families captive, and ravaged their land, similar
miracles, like acts should not be charged against Mahomet as
Joshua to ^ fault. But the slaughter of the Canaanites,
warrant resort Al Kindy replies, was a chastisement from
to the sword heaven, and the commission to inflict the same
^ '* was ratified by miracles, which he recounts

and which he reminds his Friend that both Jews
and Christians, though hostile in other respects, agree
in attesting. "Show me," he proceeds, "any the slightest

^ All this (which is altogether opposed to historical evidence) is in accord with
the Alyite current that ran strong at Al Mamun's court.
* This has been given in extenso in the Preliminary Essay, p. xii.

MAHOMET HAD NO DIVINE WARRANT FOR THE SWORD. 19

proof or sign of a wonderful work done by thy Master
to certify his mission, and to prove that what he did
in slaughter and rapine was, like the other, by Divine
command. I know thou canst not. And so it behoveth
thee not (the Lord direct thee !) to blame or injure those
who deny that the Lord sent thy Master as an Apostle
with the commission to impose his religion by the sword,
and hold him to have been an adventurer seeking his
own ends and aided therein by his kinsfolk, clan, and
fellow-citizens. If any reject the claim of such a one,
they are not justly to be blamed ; but rather, if judged
impartially, to be praised and commended for searching
out the truth. To bolster up fallacies and falsehoods
consisteth neither with reason nor justice. These are
the weapons of the Jews and heathen, who deal in lies
like their father the Devil, even as Jesus Christ our Saviour
hath shown in the holy Gospel.

" And now, as to thine invitation, suppose I should accept
it without reason or evidence, wouldest thou ^j ^.^^^^ ^_
regard that as the course of rectitude ? I trow vites his Friend
not. And judge, my Friend, how should I to consider the

-r 1 -I -»r • 1 T. i.1- -J claims of Jesus

do this, and my Lord the Messiah hath said Christ based on
in the holy Gospel, All the prophets have miracles (70,
prophesied until the time of my coming ; that is, '^^)-
at the era of my appearance, the prophetic office ceaseth ;
and whosoever cometh after me claiming to be a prophet,
the same is a wolf and a robber, receive him not.^ Tell
me, my good friend, if turning aside from the dying
command of my Lord, the Saviour of the world, I should
be tempted by the pomps, vanities, and carnal inducements
of this life, to accept thy call without proof,— I think not
that one like thee, endowed with righteousness and wisdom,
would approve a sin so heinous, neither is it possible that
one like me could turn aside thereto. Nay, my Friend,
rather would I appeal to thy reason, and beseech of thee,
casting aside considerations of birth and family, to Hsten
unto me, thy true counsellor and affectionate adviser. CaU
1 Referring possibly to John x. or Acts ix. 29.

20 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

to mind what in tlie holy Gospel, our Lord, the Messiah,
saith to His disciples — * Truly many prophets and kings
desired to see what ye see and did not see it, and to hear
what ye hear and did not hear it/ How canst thou,
reading such words, turn therefrom, loving this present
life, which swiftly passeth away and disappeareth/' The
Section on miracles closes here with an eloquent recapitula-
tion of the argument for the truth of Christianity, based on
the way in which it spread, not by force, or through any
ambitious, sordid, and carnal motives, but simply from
choice and conviction, grounded on the incontestable miracles
of Christ and His disciples.

Entering now upon a new argument, Al Kindy lays it
The THREE Dis- down as axiomatic that there are but three Dis-
PENSATioNs : pensations, to one or other of which the religion
ral and Satanic ^^ Mahomet must belong. Fh^st, the Divme ;
(72-75). second, the Natural ; and third, the Satanic.

First, the Divine, so called because moulded in the
likeness of God himself, it transcends reason, and is more
excellent than anything drawn from nature. The same
is the Gospel, or dispensation of Grace brought by Jesus
Christ, and described in the Coran as *'a light and guidance,
and a direction to the pious." It is based on Favour,

Matthew v. ^ercy, and Forgiveness, even as our Saviour

44, 45. commanded us to overcome evil with good, after

the example of our Father in heaven. The second is

the law of reason or nature, summed up by Moses in the

Sura V. 63. text *' an eye for an eye," etc. ; that is, the
law of like for like, returning good for good, and evil
for evil, and therein differing altogether from the Gospel
which follows the gracious dealing of the Lord with his
creatures. The third is the kingdom of the Evil One,
tyranny, and wrong. Conscious of treading upon delicate
ground, Al Kindy here deprecates his friend's displeasure ;
they were in the heat of conflict, and he could not afford
to dispense with any of those spiritual weapons from
which he hoped for victory. Nor would it be just to
blame him, for he had borne patiently things equally

THE THREE DISPENSATIONS. 21

severe from the other side. Beginning with a prayer that
God. would guide his Friend, he asks him which of the
three was his Master's creed. "If thou sayest, * The
Divine'; I reply, that our Lord the Christ, 600 years
before, revealed the same Dispensation ; ever since His
Ascension unto the present day. His followers have observed
it ; and they will follow the same to the end of time. More-
over, I perceive not that thy fellows know aught concerning
this law of Grace and Mercy, and as little did they act
upon it in thy Master's day. If thou sayest, ' the Natural
law ' of reason and justice, that too was revealed aforetime
by Moses, and is contained in the Tourat ; and being there,
clear as the sun-beam, it were piracy and falsehood, if any
other claimed to be the author of the same. There re-
maineth the third, the law of Satan, wrong-doing and evil.
Now look (the Lord guide thee !) with an eye that shall
not deflect from the right, and see who it is that taketh
his stand on this dispensation, seeketh help therefrom,
and practiseth its principles. And if not this, then tell
me what new Dispensation thy Master came with, and
what law other than this he revealed, that I may embrace
the same, if it be worthy of acceptance ; for I will not refuse
the truth from whatsoever quarter it may come. Perchance
thou wilt say that thy Master combined the two former
dispensations both together, to wit, the rule of the Messiah
and the rule of Moses — following up the law of * Life
for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, nose for Sura v. 63.
nose, etc.,' with the command of our Lord ' but guj-a ii. 238 ;
if ye forgive, it is nigher unto piety.' But ^' 9-

thou well knowest that the two being contradictory, will not
consist together, — as if one were to say that a man was
standing and sitting, blind and seeing, healthy and diseased,
at one and the same time; and I think not that thou
wouldest admit so untenable a claim. Besides, this amalga-
mated creed would have been fetched from two separate
sources, the Gospel, and the Tourat. And supposing thou
wert to say, 'I adopt both these Dispensations'; I think
not that the professors of either would acknowledge thee ;

22 THE APOGOGY OF AL KINDT.

for they have inherited their respective creeds and hold
the same in their hands intact ; and would reply that
it was simple plagiarism. Nay rather, do thou show us
something of thine own, which is in thy hands, and not
in ours, but new ; and we shall then acknowledge thee
to be true and just. Ah, is it not because thou takest refuge
in the third, and seeketh help therefrom, however much thou
mayest disclaim it ? For I wot not that thou wouldest
consent to hold thy Master as a mere follower of Moses
and the Messiah, — seeing that thou claimest for him a
position so exalted that had it not been for him neither
Adam nor the world would have taken shape. And that thy
Master showed no miracle (as he himself disclaimed the
power), why was it but because there remained no fourth
dispensation ? Now if there are but three, and Moses and
the Messiah came with two, what is there left for thy
Master but the third ? I know not which of these answers
I am to choose. I pray thee, my Friend, be honest with
thyself, and evade not the question, for that were against the -f-
conditions of this controversy ; seeing that Religion is not
one of those matters which men of sense and understanding
can refrain from probing and discussing, or neglect to test
by right principle. The Lord lead thee graciously to the
Truth, and strengthen thee to abandon the False."

" "We come now to what thou regardest as thy stronghold,

^ to wit, the Book which is in thy hands. Thine

The Coran as , • . i . i • i i • (» ^ i

an evidence of argument IS that the narratives therein oi the

Mahomet's prophets and the Messiah prove that it was
Mission revealed by God, because thy Master was un-

learned, and could have had no knowledge of
the same excepting by way of inspiration. Again, thou
sayest that * neither man nor genius could produce the
V Sura ii. 23. like thereof * ; and, ' If ye be in doubt as to
that which We have revealed unto Our servant, then bring
a Sura the like thereof, and call your witnesses other than
the Lord, if ye be true men. ' And, yet again, * If We had
Suralix. 21. sent down this Coran unto a mountain, thou

THE COEAN; HOW COLLECTED TOGETHER. 23

wouldest have seen it humbling itself, and cleaving asunder,
from fear of tlie Lord ' ; and the like eflPusions. This in
thy view is the main evidence of thy Master's claim, rank-
ing with the miracle of the Eed Sea, the Staying of the
Sun, the Raising of the Dead, and other wonderful works
by the prophets of old and the Messiah. And, by my life !
this argument hath deceived many. But it is a weak and
hollow subterfuge. The answer is near at hand, and not
far off, as I will show thee. The disclosure may be bitter,
but it will be wholesome in the end." He then proceeds
to give a lengthy account of the origin of the Goran. ^ His
story in short is this. *' Sergius, a Nestorian monk, was
excommunicated for a certain offence. To expiate it, he
set out on a mission to Arabia, and reached Mecca, which
he found inhabited by Jews and idolaters. There he
met Mahomet, with whom he had intimate converse,
and persuaded him, after being instructed in the faith
of Nestorius, to abandon heathenism, and become his
disciple. This, while it excited the hatred of the Jews,
was the reason of the favourable mention of the Christians
in the Goran, to wit, that ' they are the nighest Sura v. 91.

* unto believers in friendship ; and that because there are

* amongst them priests and monks, and because they are not

* haughty.' And so the matter prospered, and the Christian
faith was near to being adopted, when Sergius died. There-
upon two Jewish Doctors, Abdallah and Kab, seized the
opportunity, and ingratiated themselves with thy Master,
professing deceitfully to share his views and be his followers.
Thus they concealed their object and bided their time.
Then upon the Prophet's death, when Aly kept aloof and
refused to swear allegiance to Abu Bekr, the two Jews
sought him out, and tried to persuade him to assume the
prophetic office, for which they declared him fit, and
promised to instruct him, as Sergius had instructed Mahomet.

^ TMs lono- digression about the Coran is strongly coloured by Abbasside and
Alyite tradition. Much of it is mere romance, resting on no historical evidence
whatever. But it was no doubt the kind of talk popular at the Court of Al
Mamiin (where any argument impugning the etermty of the Coran would be
well received) ; and, indeed, our Author here and there implies as much.

24 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

Al}^ yet young and inexperienced, listened to them, and
was instructed secretly. ^ Before they had fully gained
their object, Abu Bekr heard of it and sent for Aly, who
finding opposition useless, abandoned his ambitious claim.
But the Jews had already succeeded in tampering with the
text which Mahomet left in Aly's hands, that namely which
was based upon the Gospel. It was then that these Jews
interpolated histories from the Old Testament, and portions
of the Mosaic law, and introduced such passages as this : —
Sura ii. 113. ^ The Christians say that the Jews are founded
' upon nothing, and the Jews say that the Christians are

* founded upon nothing ; and yet they read the Book. Thus
' did the ignorant people aforetime speak as they do. Where-

* fore the Lord will judge between them in the day of

* the Resurrection as to that concerning which they difier.'
Hence also arose inconsistencies in the Coran, — passages
proceeding from one source, differing from passages that

Suras xvi. proceeded from another ; as in Chapters, the
xxvii.andxxix. Bee, the Ant, the Spider. Now when Aly
despaired of succeeding to the Caliphate, he repaired to
Abu Bekr forty days (some say six months) after the
Prophet's death. As he was swearing allegiance, Abu Bekr
asked him, * 0 Father of Hasan, what hath delayed thee
so long ? ' He answered, * / was busy collecting the Book
of the Lord, for the Prophet committed that to me.'
Reflect, my Friend, what could have been the meaning
of his being busy in collecting the Book of God? Thou
knowest how the tyrant Hajjaj ' collected ' the leaves of the
Coran, and left out much thereof. Ah, deceived one ! the
Book of God is not ' collected,' nor can any part thereof be
lost. Thou, and those of thy persuasion, know and acknow-
ledge all that I have said, for it is taken from traditions of
your own in which all of you agree. According to some
authorities, the first copy was left with the Coreish, and Aly,
when he came to power, ordered it to be taken possession
of lest it should be tampered with ; and this was the copy

^ Hardly young and inexperienced, being then over six-and-twenty years.

THE GORAN, HOW COLLECTED. 25

wMcli was in accord with the Gospel as delivered to
Mahomet by Sergius.^ Now when Aly spake to Abu Bekr,
as related above, those about him replied, that tl^ere were
scraps and pieces of the Goran with them as well as with
Aly ; and it was agreed to collect the whole together. So
they collected various parts from the memory of Sura ix.

individuals, (as Sura Bar at, which they wrote out at the
dictation of a certain Arab from the desert,) and other
portions from different people, and from the deputations
which had visited the Prophet ; besides that which was copied
out from tablets of stone, and palm leaves, and shoulder bones,
and such like. It was not at first collected in a volume, but
remained in separate leaves ; and so the Jews got what they
wanted inserted through the leaves of Aly.

" Then the people fell to variance in their reading. Some
read according to the version of Aly (and they follow
the same to the present day) ; some read according to the
collection of which we have made mention. Others read
according to the reading of the Arab from the desert
who in his ignorance made changes and additions. A
party read according to the text of Ibn Masud, following
the saying of thy Haster,—' Whosoever would read the
Goran in its pristine purity and freshness, let him read
after Ibn 0 mm Mabad ' ; and he used to repeat it over
to him once every year, and in the year he died, twice.
And, yet again, some read after Obey ibn Kab, following
thy Master's word ; — * The best Reader amongst you all, is
Obey.' Now the readings of Obey and Ibn Masud are
close one to the other.

"Thus when Othman came to power, and people every-
where differed in their readings, Aly sought grounds of
accusation against him, compassing his death.^ One man
would read a verse one way, and another man another way,
each saying that his reading was better than his neighbour's,

1 Our Author tells us that this Sergius was also called by the Companions
" Gabriel," and at other times " The faithful Spirit." ^ ^

2 The sentence is remarkable, preceding as it does the notice of Othman s
recension, and also as plainly imputing to Aly a design prepense on the life of
Othman.

26 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDT.

and contending for the same; and there was change and
interpolation, some copies having more and some less.
When this was represented to Othman, and the danger
urged of division, strife and apostacy, he thereupon caused to
be collected together all the leaves and scraps that he
was able, together with what was copied out at the first.
But they did not meddle with that which was in the hands
of Aly, or of those who followed his reading. Obey was
dead by this time. As for Ibn Masud, they demanded
his exemplar, but he refused to give it up, and so Abu
Musa was appointed governor of Kufa in his room.^ Then
they commanded Zeid ibn Thabit, and with him Abdallah
ibn Abbas (others say Mohummed, son of Abu Bekr), to
revise and correct the text, eliminating all that was corrupt.
Now both were young ; ^ and they were instructed when
they difiered on any reading, word, or name, to follow
the dialect of the Coreish. On many points they did differ.
For instance, Zeid wrote Tdhuhf and Ibn Abbas Tdhut.
When the recension was completed, four exemplars were
written out in large text, and sent one to Mecca, and
another to Medina. The third was despatched to Syria,
and is to this day at Malatia (Melitene). The copy at
Mecca remained there till the city was stormed by Abu
Saraya (that is, the last time the Kaaba was sacked,
A.H. 200) ; he did not carry it away ; but it is supposed
to have been burned in the conflagration. The Medina
exemplar was lost in the reign of terror, that is, in the
days of Yezid ibn Muavia. The fourth exemplar was
deposited in Kufa, then the centre of Islam and home
of the Companions of the Prophet. People say that this
copy is still extant there ; but this is not the case, for it
was lost in the insurrection of Mukhtar.^

"After what we have related above, Othman called in
all the former leaves and copies, and destroyed them,

1 The deposition is true, but not the cause here alleged for it.

2 Our Author is not accurate. At the Ilegira, Zeid was eleven, and Abdallah
six years of age ; so at the era of Othman' s recension they must have been
thirty and thirty-five years old, respectively.

3 Mukhtar was slain in the rebellion here referred to, A.n. 67.

VARIOUS READINGS IN THE CORAN. 27

tlireatening those wlio held any portion back; and so
only some scattered remains, concealed here and there,
survived. Nothing remained to show the discrepancies
which are known to have existed. It is said for example
that Sura Nur (xxiv.) used to be longer than Sura Bacr
(ii.),^ and that Sura Ahzab (xxxiii.) is mutilated and in-
complete ; so also that there was originally no division
between Sura Barat (ix.) and Sura Anfal (viii.), and ac-
cordingly we see that the invariable heading In the name of
God most Merciful, is wanting in the former. Similar is the
case of the two 'Incantation Suras,' ^ of which Ibn Masud
said when they were placed in the Goran : Add not thereto
that ivhich is not therein. And then there is the speech
of Omar delivered from the pulpit (of the Great Mosque
at Medina), * Let no one say that the Stoning Verse is not
in the Book of Grod ; for verily I have myself read. The
man and the woman that commit adultery, let them both he
stoned to death ; and if it were not that men might say,
* Omar hath added to the Goran that which is not therein,*
I would have inserted the same with mine own hand.' ^
Likewise at the close of another address : * Truly I know
not of any one who saith that the Ordinance of temporary
marriage {Al Mutah) is not in the Book of the Lord, for,
indeed, I have myself read it ; but it hath fallen out. And
verily the Lord will not reward him well that caused it
to fall out ; for a trust was given, and he fulfilled not
the trust of the Lord and of his prophet; and verily
much that belonged to the Goran hath thus fallen out.'
And yet once more, Omar said : ' The Lord was not minded
to deal lightly with mankind, for verily he sent Mahomet
with a wide and comprehensive faith.'

"And Obey ibn Kab said that there were two Suras which
he used to recite (as part of the Goran :) Al Caniit and Al
Witr ; in them were these words : ' 0 Lord, we ask thee
for help and pardon and guidance, and we believe in thee

1 The longest Sura in the Coran.

2 The last two Suras, of only a line or two each.

' See Liji of Mahomet (1st edition), vol. i. p. xxv.

28 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

and put our trust in thee/ and so on to tlie end of Al Wetr.
(This he said in respect of the first compilation, no longer
extant.)

" Again, as regards the same Ordinance of temporary mar-
riage (al Mutah), Aly caused the passage about it to be entirely-
excluded. They say that while Caliph, he overheard a man
reciting the verse, and had him scourged for the same, and
forbade its further repetition. And this was one of the things
for which Ayesha reproached Aly after the battle of the Camel
when she had retired to the house of Ibn Khalaf (at Bus-
sora) ; for, among other things, she said that Aly had beaten
men in this matter of the Coran, and forbade the repetition
of certain passages, and tampered with the text. More-
over, Ibn Masud retained his exemplar in his own hands,
and it was inherited by his posterity, as it is this day ;
and likewise the collection of Aly hath descended in his
family.

*'Then followed the business of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, who
gathered together every single copy he could lay hold of,
and caused to be omitted from the text a great many
passages. Amongst these, they say, were verses revealed
concerning the House Omeyya with the names of certain,
and concerning the House of Abbas also with names. Six
copies of the text thus revised were distributed to Egypt,
ISyria, Medina, Mecca, Kufa, and Bussora. After that he
called in and destroyed all the preceding copies, even as
Othman had done before him.

"And the result of all this is patent to thee who hast
read the Scriptures, and seest how in thy book histories
are all jumbled together and intermingled ; an evidence
that many difierent hands have been at work therein, and
caused discrepancies, adding or cutting out whatever they
liked or disliked. Are such, now, the conditions of a
Bevelation sent down from heaven ?

** Furthermore, thy Master was an Arab, living amongst
the Bedouins; and before them, and in their language, he
laid his lucubrations. Now it is notorious that the Arabs
as a nation are incorrigibly heathenish and graceless ; how

IMPERFECTION IN THE COEAN. 29

could sucli a people receive from him. tlie secret of tlie
Lord, or truths proper to be revealed to a prophet ? Thou
knowest the enmity subsisting between Aly and Abu Bekr,
Omar, and Othman ; and each of these entered whatever
favoured his own claims, and left out what was otherwise.
How, then, can we distinguish between the genuine and
the counterfeit ? And how about the losses caused by
Hajjaj ? Thou well knowest what kind of faith that tyrant
held in other matters ; then how canst thou make him an
arbiter as to the Book of God, — a man who never ceased
to play into the hands of the Omeyyads whenever he
found opportunity. And besides all this, the Jews also
had a hand in the business ; and foisted in what they
thought would further their own seditious and rebellious
ends.

" All that I have said (continues Al Kindy, after an affec-
tionate personal appeal) is drawn from your own authorities ;
and no argument have I advanced but what is based on evidence
accepted by yourselves. And in proof thereof, we have the
Coran itself, which is a confused heap with neither system
nor order. The sense moreover consisteth not with itself ; but
throughout one passage is contradicted by another. Now,
what could betray greater ignorance than to bring forward
such a book as an evidence of Apostleship, and to put it on a
par with the miracles of Moses and Jesus ! Surely no one
with a grain of sense would dream of it ; much less should
we who are versed in history and philosophy, be moved by
such deceptive reasoning.

"Tell me, now, what thy Master intended, when he said
that * neither men nor genii, let them strive Sura xvii. 89.
together never so hard, could produce a book like unto
the Coran.' If the contention be that the language sur-
passeth all other composition in eloquence, our answer is
that every nation regardeth its own language the most
beautiful, while the Arabs hold every other tongue but
their own as barbarous ; and similarly the Arabic, held by
them as the most beautiful, is regarded by other nations to
be barbarous.*'

30 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

" If tlie claim be tLat (apart from all other tongues) the
Foreiffn words Coran is an unparalleled and miraculous model
in the Goran of Arabic (according to the text, Verily We
(85-86). ^^^g gQ^f down the Coran in the Arabic tongue,

V Sura xii. ^2 ; {f perchance ye may comprehend) ; then, why do
we find in it foreign words, as namctric from the
Persian, and mishkdt from the Abyssinian, vocabulary ? ^
Here is a defect either in the messenger or the message.
If there be in the Arabic language no words to express
the ideas, then the medium of communication, and there-
fore the message itself, is imperfect ; if otherwise, the mes-
[ senger." That not the former, but the latter, was the case,
Al Kindy enforces by the congenial argument that there
were poets, such as Imrul Cays, and men of eloquence
and oratory, without number before Mahomet, whose pro-
ductions surpassed his, both in conception and language.
This was cast in his teeth by the Meccans; for he turns
Sura xliii. 57. round and calls them ' a contentious race.' And,
indeed, Mahomet himself admits as much when he attributes
their compositions to magic.^ The introduction then of
foreign expressions into the Coran must be owing to one of
two things ; either to the poverty of the Arabian vocabulary,
while confessedly it is the richest and most copious of all
tongues, or to the fact that difierent persons had a hand
in the work ; and our Author leaves his Friend on the
horns of this dilemma.

" If, again, the claim put forth be, that there is in the
Claim of poeti- Coran a supernatural harmony and cadence of
cal beauty. language, and beauty of conception ; that will be
determined by the accuracy of the measures, the purity and
fitness of the composition, and the point and charm of
thought and imagery. But thy book throughout is broken

1 See also Sura xiii. 40 , xx. Ill ; xxxix. 28 ; xli. 2 ; xlii. 6 ; and xlvi. 12.

2 Namaric, carpets or cushions ; mishkut, a lamp ; sandus, silk ; alastabrac,
satin, brocade ; abdrick, goblets, are also quoted as foreign words imported into
the Goran. The argument here may appear singular to us ; but to the Arabs,
who piqued themselves on the fulness and purity of their language, it would have
a force of its own ; and it was no doubt of a kind favourably received at Court.

3 The imputation was often made by the Meccans, as against Mahomet
(Sura xxxiv. 2 ; xliii. 29 ; xlvi. 6). But here Mahomet apparently is represented
as attributing to magic the elog^uence of profane writers, which can therefore be
no proper test of a revelation, (^y

j^\ oW^ <^ ^

\ ^

THE CORAN ; ITS STYLE AND PURPORT. 31

in its rhythm, confused in its composition, and in its flights
of fancy unmeaning.''

Yet once more, if the claim rest on the matter revealed in
the Coran, Al Kindy asks what single truth we Matter revealed
find there revealed, unknown to the ancients, and ^^ *^® Coran.
which had not already been handled threadbare. In their
own day, they were pursuing every branch of knowledge
to results unparalleled before ; yet what had that to do
with such superhuman conditions as were required for
miracles like those of Moses or of Christ ? The truth, in
short, was that the Coran with its manifold defects could
only have appeared a miracle of eloquence and learning
in the eyes of rude ignorant tribes and barbarous races.

The three false prophets of his time played the same
game as Mahomet ; and our Author had read passages
given out by Moseilama, which would have drawn away
the Moslems after him, if only he had had Helpers to
support him like those of Mahomet.^

Our Apologist here reminds his Friend that the Arabic
tongue was the inheritance equally of them both, being derived
from their common ancestor Yarob, the great-grandson of
Ishmael. Here they stood on the same ground ; and in the
ability to judge of its beauties and defects, his Friend had
no advantage over him. It was, moreover, a vain and decep-
tive test as addressed to strange nations ; for when the Coran
was delivered to them, these could not understand it, but
were obliged to take the same on trust, and act upon it
so far as their ignorance would admit. The Arabs of the
desert alone spoke the language in its purity. Such as
lived in cities, by intercourse with foreigners, soon lost
the simplicity of their tongue, and were incapable of passing
any judgment upon it. His Friend might reply that the
Coreish were themselves the most eloquent of the Arabs
and skilful in the language, and that they were consequently
in a position to press the argument; which Al Xindy

* I do not know to what utterances of Moseilama our Author can here allude,
for the sayings attributed to him by tradition are the veriest rubbish that can
well be conceived.

32 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

answers by a characteristic declamation on tlie superiority
of his own ancestry. " Thou wilt not deny that when
thy Master sought the hand of Muleika, daughter of
Neman Al Kindy, she answered, What, shall Muleika marry
into a race of merchantmen ? Thou knowest well that the
Coreish were the traders of Arabia, and the Beni Kinda
its Princes. I do not say this vaunting my own descent
over thine ; but simply to remind thee that the Beni Kinda
were the chiefest among the Arabs in eloquence, both
orjatorical and poetical. Their Kings, foremost in the land,
led the armies of Arabia; and so great was their fame
that the Persians and Eomans were proud to seek their
daughters in marriage. At the same time all the world
must admit the glory of the Coreish, and especially of
the Beni Hashim ; and, indeed, the same applieth to the
whole Arab race, whom the Lord hath distinguished by
their noble qualities over all the nations upon earth."

Peverting once more to the admission of solecisms into
the Coran, it might be urged in defence that the Arabic
language was embodied in its poetry ; that its vocabulary,
drawn from that source, was limited thereby, and that the
word for carpets (namdrick) was unknown. True, our apologist
replies ; but that arose from the simplicity of the Arab race,
who were innocent of the luxuries and refinements of arti-
ficial living. In process of time, the language became
depraved by foreign words; and in this mongrel tongue
people began to make verses, which so aped the ancient
poetry of the Peninsula, that it was difficult to distinguish
the real from the counterfeit. Now-a-days even learned
rhetoricians mistook the spurious -for the genuine. The
grace and freshness of the tongue, as well as its capacity
for carrying on the business of life, had so popularized
Arabic, that foreign ideas, and metaphors strange to artless
Arab life, were clothed in language claiming to be cast in the
ancient mould. And so any one now wrote poetry in the
ancient form, and sought thereby courtly favour and advance-
ment. Hence Arabic poetry had become interpolated and
corrupted, so that it could not in any way be brought forward.

MATERIAL INDUCEMENTS TO THE SPREAD OF ISLAM. 33

otherwise than as a language changed and debased, in an '
argument affecting books that relate to the Divine mysteries.^ :

The use in the Coran of terms of luxury and artificial life, ~
introduces a new subject, namely, the material
inducements contributing to the propagation of DucEMENTsfor
Islam. The Arabs, as every one acquainted with the propaga- ^
history knew, were a needy and barbarous race, *^°^ °^ ^^\^ya.
feeding on lizards and such like, with no shelter
from the hot blast of summer, nor covering from the cold
winds of winter, hungry and naked. What could they know
of rivers of wine and milk ; rare fruits and viands ; couches
of silk and satin spread with velvet cushions upon brocaded
carpets ; ladies, like pearls hiding in their shells ; beautiful
pages handing round goblets ; delicious shade with mur-
muring rivulets — things appertaining rather to the palaces
of the Chosroes.2 But travellers brought home from Persia
the rumour of these marvellous luxuries ; and so hearing led
to coveting ; and coveting, to fighting for the same. His
Friend would remember the occasion when the invading
Moslem army seized baskets laden with the choice things of j
Persia ; and as they tasted the delicacies thereof, they spake
one to another, — By the Lord ! even if there were no Faith ^
to fight for J it were worth our while to fight for this.^ And
so they fought against an impious nation over whom the
Lord gave them the victory; so that they slew them and
destroyed their dwellings, for that they had rebelled and
shed innocent blood. Even thus doth the Lord visit the sins
of stiff-necked peoples, by setting one up against the other.

Al Kindy proceeds to enumerate various classes brought
over to Islam, by sordid and unworthy motives. There were
first the mongrel boors of the neighbouring Chaldean delta /

1 On this deterioration of language and imitation of ancient poetry, see
Bemerkungen uber die Aechtheit der alter Arab. Gedichte, by Professor Ahlwardt,
Greifswald, 1872 ; also Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Poesie der alien Araber, by
Theodor Noldeke, Hannover, 1864 ; also an Article by myself on Ancient Arabic
Poetry, its Genuineness and Authenticity, Royal Asiatic Society's Journal, 1879.

2 All these luxuries are mentioned in the Goran as appertaining to Paradise ; .
Bee for example Suras xxxvi. 41 ; liii. 23 ; Ivi. 17.

3 These words were used by Khalid in a speech to his army after one of his
early victories in Irac.

34 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

(al Sawad) ; — ''You may address fhem in Arabic, and they
may move their tongue, like a parrot, in reply ; but they are
mongrel still. Some retain at heart the dregs of their old
Jewish and Magian faith ; others, blown about by the wind
of the day, cannot tell you the distinction between them-
selves, the brute creation, and their Maker ; reared with the
Sura vii. 180- l^^asts of the field they are like them, — "nay

XXV. 45. more erring and stupid than they/* Again, there
are the idolatrous races, Magians, and Jews ; low people,
aspiring by the profession of Islam, to raise themselves to
riches and power, and form alliances with the learned and
honourable. Then there are hypocritical men of the world,
who in this way obtain indulgences in marriage and con-
cubinage, forbidden to them by the Christian faith. There
is, moreover, the dissolute class given over wholly to the
lusts of the flesh, who take Islam as a ladder to attain
their object. Lastly, there are those who by this means
obtain an easier livelihood.

" Now tell me, hast thou ever seen, my Friend (the Lord
be gracious unto thee !) or ever heard, of a single person
of sound mind, — any one of learning and experience, ac-
quainted with the Scriptures, — renouncing Christianity other-
wise than for some such worldly object to be reached only
through thy religion, or for some gratification withheld by
the faith of Jesus? Thou wilt find none; for excepting
the tempted ones, all continue steadfast in their faith, secure
under our most gracious Sovereign, each in the profession
of his own religion."

Certain classes of apostates and heretics are here de-
Apostate here- scribed in bitter terms ; hypocrites who con-
tics denounced temned the Prophet and questioned his claims
(93, 94). -j^ secret, while outwardly pluming themselves

in his faith. There were heretics w^ho held that the Holy
Ghost was divided into three portions, given one to Jesus,
another to Moses, and the third to a certain person whose
name Al Kindy had a horror even to mention;' — Mahomet
having no lot or part therein. These were the most

1 I do not know to what person allusion is here made, and again below at p. 36.

HYPOCEITICAL ADHERENTS OF ISLAM. 35

heathenisli and detestable of schismatics. Then there were
Christian renegades, who used their profession to lord it over
innocent and faithful brethren of their old faith, — wolves
ravening the lambs, as our Saviour had foretold. The
blasphemies of this Satanic brood were beyond description.
They boasted that they could produce traditions to prove
anything they liked. What would his Friend say of their
profanity in pretending that the Lord had sent to Abu
Eekr, saying, " 0 Abu Bekr, I am well pleased with thee ;
art thou likewise well pleased with me?"^ It was the old
tale, — there was no prophet but his followers fabricated lies
about him. Of a similar kind were the mass of contra-
dictory traditions about the Call to prayer, Funeral rites,
Prayers, Fasts, Festivals, etc., which it would be wearisome
to detail, and his Friend knew it all. The fiassage is
wound up with a scathing denunciation of these hypocriti-
cal and blasphemous liars. He had spared the mention of
their calumnies against the existing Government, the name
of Islam, Prophets, Holy men, etc. But their profanities
(like those he had mentioned) were so horrible, the wonder
was that they were not destroyed by a thunderbolt, or that
the heavens did not fall down and crush them. It was
only the mercy and longsuffering of God that spared them
and gave space for repentance.

Al Kindy now addresses himself to the Moslem conceit, —

advanced by his Friend in exaltation of Islam, —

., , p V( • * 1 • 1 T 1 • -11 Tne name of

that beiore Creation the Almighty had inscribed Mahomet

upon the great Throne the Prophet's name with written on the

the Moslem creed. There is no God but the Lord Throne of God

(94-96).

and Mahomet is the Apostle of God. He asks,
in playful irony, w^hether this was written up for the benefit
of the Angels lest they should forget it, — as if those who
sang the praises of their Maker when He said. Let there
be light, were likely to forget any of His works. Or,
was it for the benefit of mankind ? If so, how were they

^ As usual the illustrations go in depreciation of Ahu Bekr, as was the fashion
of the Alyites at Al Mamun's Court. A few reigns later, no one would have
dared to repeat traditions affecting the character of the first three Caliphs.

36 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

to see it, while here on earth ? and in the Day of Judgment,
the truth would be too clearly set before the eyes of all, to
need any adventitious help. He scouts the notion as unworthy
of his Friend ; and adds that he never heard of any of the
companions of his Friend who shared his views, or indeed
of any wise and intelligent Moslem who did not reject
the tale. The idea was a preposterous and ignoble fancy
borrowed from the corporeal conception of the Jews that
God was seated on a material throne.

" It is customary for your preachers (he proceeds) to open
Aro-ument ^^ address by the following invocation : — 0 Lordy
from the seed hless Mahomet and the posterity of Mahomet^ even
of Abraham ^^ ^V^^m had hlessed Abraham and the posterity of

Deinff pre- i/ »/

f erred above all Abraham; and having so said, they think that
mankind" they have exhausted all that can possibly be
(96, 97). invoked in the way of blessing. JSTow consider

the horrid impiety of connecting thus a person (Mahomet)
whose name ye imagine to be written with that of the Most
High on the Throne of Light and on whose behalf alone
Adam and the world were created, — connecting with the
name of such an one, the seed of Abraham including a person
whom thou knowest, but whose name I should tremble to
write in this place.^ But indeed the superiority of the
Israelites over all other nations is reiterated in various
Sura ii. passages of the Coran itself, as, — * 0 children of
47, 123. Israel, remember the Favour wherewith I have
favoured you, and preferred you above all mankind,' —
preferred therefore above thee, and above thy Master, upon
whom in the aforesaid prayer thou invoked the blessing of
Abraham." This was mentioned as a mere argumentum ad
homineniy and not by any means as conveying his own
sentiments. For he had throughout carefully avoided refer-
ence to race or superior descent, — seeing that all mankind
were of one blood, children of a common parent, — the only
difference between man and man being in mind and virtue.
And in saying even so much as he had, he deprecates the

1 Again, I do not know to what descendant of Abraham reference is here
intended,— so detestable that Al Kindy will not even mention his name.

ORDINANCES OF ISLAM. 37

vulgar aspersion whicli the ignorant and spiteful might cast

upon him, as if he had sought to slight the E-oyal house, the

Prophet's family, or any of his race.

Al Kindy now comes to the various Moslem ceremonies

he had been recommended to adopt. Of Prayer Ordinances

iT-i- • mn 1 I'-n^'T®^ Islam

and J^astmg, it sumced to say that his J^riend (96-98).

had confessed himself acquainted with those duties as per-
formed in a far diviner way under the Christian dispensation.
In respect of ceremonial washings, he quotes our Saviour's
words as teaching the vanity of outward cleansing while
there was a foul sepulchre within. " What sense is there in
the washing of your hands and feet and your standing up to
prayer while your hearts are set upon bloodshed and rapine
and the ravishing of women ? Hath not our Lord the Christ
given us a better lesson, — Cleanse first that which is within,
that the outside may be clean also ? " In respect of Circum-
cision, he reminds his Friend, that he himself, along with those
of his persuasion, held that Mahomet was not circumcised.
If the precedent of Jesus were urged, he answers that he
was circumcised simply to fulfil the Law ; — which law, in its
Sacrifices, Sabbaths, Passover, etc., ("statutes that Matt. v. 17.
were not good'') having been fulfilled by Christ, Ezek. xx. 25.
had disappeared in place of ordinances far superior, because
entirely spiritual. St. Paul teaches us that cir- i Cor. vii. 19 ;
cumcision is nothing ; and, if trusted in, worse ^^^- "^^ 2.
than nothing. In short, both washing and circumcision were
things indifierent ; if practised by Christians it was simply
by way of habit and ancestral custom, and not of obligation.^
The prohibition of swine's flesh is combated on the
ground that God made all things "very good," Gen. i. 31.

and that nothing in nature was unholy or for ^^^^^.^

Prohibition of
swine's flesh

bidden ; — excepting only blood, and that which (100-102).

1 There are several passages which must be omitted here. Page 98, last eight
lines. The reason assigned for circumcision is both childish and indelicate.
Fage 100, first five lines may be true, but the mode of expression is gross and
offensive. Page 102, lower half (and by consequence first seven lines of page 103),
relating to Hagar, and a practice current among the Arabs {Life of Mahomet,
1st edition, vol. ii. p. 108, note), is at once silly and grossly improper. It is strange
that a man of refinement should have admitted such a passage into his book. But
it is the habit of the Arabs (see Life of Mahomet, p. 600), and the laxity of
Islam has not improved it.

38 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

dieth of itself, and things offered to idols, for these were
unlawful by command* of the Lord. The reason assigned
for the Mosaic prohibition is curious. The Egyptians
worshipped kine, goats, etc., as their gods ; ^ while, on
the contrary, they held swine, horses, camels, etc., to be
unclean, and offered them in sacrifice to their gods. To
disabuse the Israelites of such idolatrous notions, the
sacred animals were sacrificed to the True God, and their
flesh allowed to be eaten ; while the other animals deemed
unclean by the Egyptians were forbidden to be either
sacrificed or eaten. As to pork, there was no more reason
why it should be prohibited than the flesh of the camel,
ass, or horse, allowed by Mahomet. It was a matter in-
different, in which each was free to follow his taste and
fancy. The prohibition is moreover set down to the per-
nicious teaching of Abdallah ibn Sallam, the Jew, who had
depraved the faith; and for this Mahomet himself was
nowise responsible.

The invitation to observe the Pilgrimage and Meccan
Pilgrimage rites, is derided by Al Kiiidy, as if his Friend

and rites of ^^^j^ j^'j^ f^^. ^ ^hild or a fool. " Knowest thou
Mecca (103- , .

108). not that the same is the practice of the Sun-

worshippers and Brahmas in India at the present day ?
They make the circuit of their idol Temples, with just
these ceremonies, shaved and naked (or with the dress
they call ihrdm). The only difference is that ye perform
it once in the year at a moveable season, while they do
it twice at certain solar conjunctions, one in the Spring
when the heat begins, the other in Autumn when the cold
sets in. 2 Such is the origin of these idolatrous customs.
Thou well knowest that the Arabs practised them from
the foundation of the Kaaba ; and thy Master continued
the same, with only this alteration, that on account of the
distance and labour of travel, he limited the Pilgrimage
to one period of the year, and abolished what was indecent

1 In proof he adduces Exod. viii. 26 ; and also the worship of the golden calf,
a relic of Egypt.

2 Our familiar Indian terms Rubbee and Khur reef axe given for the Spring and
Autumn festivals.

PILGEIMAGE ; CUSTOM BORROWED FROM HEATHEN. 39

in the pilgrim dress.^ Thus, that which ye perform in nothing
differs from the idolatrous ceremonies of the Sun-worshippers
and Idolators of India. There is a saying attributed to
Omar as he stood by the Black Stone and the Station (of
Abraham) ; ^ * By the Lord ! I know that neither of these
Stones can benefit, nor hurt ; but I have seen the Prophet
kiss them both, and therefore I do the same/ Now whether
they spake false or true in attributing this utterance to
Omar, they certainly spake what is true as regardeth the
Stones themselves." Shaving the head, making bare the
body, running the prescribed circuits, and casting the small
Stones at Mina, senseless and unmeaning rites, were de-
fended by some as acts of service to the Deity ; but the
worship of God should be conducted, not by unfit and
foolish practices, but by observances consonant with reason,
pleasing to the Almighty, and edifying to His servants.
If otherwise, then why abandon the objectionable customs
of the Magians, who thought it lawful to take to wife their
own mothers, sisters, and daughters, and other such like
abominations. " But what could be more vile (he seizes
the opportunity of adding) than your own ordinance for
legalizing re-marriage after the thrice repeated divorce ;
for by it, a chaste lady, tender and delicate, the mother
of virtuous daughters, herself it may be noble-born and
held in honour by her kinsfolk,— this pattern of virtue and
refinement must submit her person to the lewd embrace
of a hired gallant, before she can be restored to her
husband, — an abominable law, more odious even than the
wicked customs of the Magians. And yet thou invitest
me to accept a vile ordinance like this, — an ordinance
against which the very beasts of the field, if ye gave
"them speech, would cry out for shame ! ^ God forbid that

1 Our Author is at fault here ; for the only change made by Mahomet in the
season of pilgrimage was to abolish the intercalary month, so that the pilgrimage
shifts with the lunar, instead of being stationary, according to the kmi- solar
year. Life of Mahomet^ p. 486.

'^ The Ma'cchn. See Life of Mahomet, p. 423 (also Ist edition, vol. ii. p. 38).

3 Al Kindy's words are strong, but not too strong, here. See Life of Mahotnet,
page 350.

40 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

I should so do violence to my reason and my nature ; tlie
Lord save me from being amongst the transgressors !

" Thou invitest me to visit the Holy places, ' those blessed
and marvellous spots/ as thou callest them. 'Marvellous/
in truth, my Friend, must those places be where rites
are witnessed so repugnant to common sense. But as for
being 'blessed,' I wish to know what blessing hath ever
flowed from visiting them. The sick, the maimed, the leper
the possessed of the devil, — hath any one of them ever re-
turned whole from thence ? Such blessings are known only
to the Christian faith. The Lord's are open to the cry where-
soever it ariseth from an earnest heart; and Christ hath
promised that where any two shall agree in prayer as
touching anything, it shall be granted.'* Al Kindy then
dilates, with much apparent complacency, on the cures
which, at the intercession of Honks, Priests, and Holy
men of God, were wrought in churches, monasteries, and
other sacred places, where men were wont to call on the
name of the Lord. Through such intercession, blessings
descended on the humble and the pious ; and even the
wicked, if they returned, would be graciously received, as
our Author shows in the words of the parable of the
Prodigal Son.^

''Distinguish now, my Friend, between thy Faith and mine,
and let not misguided zeal mislead thee, for that is naught
Sura xii. 6 ; but Satan's guile, according to the text : ' Satan
XVU.53; XX.30. ygj-Qy {g the enemy of mankind.' Seest thou
not (the Lord have mercy on thee !) that thou art calling
me from an unspeakable priceless blessing, coveted by the
Angels, and longed for by Prophets and Kings, and Holy
men of old, to that which my soul loatheth, and which is
utterly repugnant to my reason. Were I to consent, I
trow not that I should be among the faithful."
The Saracenic " And then, thou callest on me ' to enter on The
crusade (108- way of the Lordy that is to wage war against
^^^)* ^ other religions, to smite with the sword, and

1 In this section, which I have more than usually abbreviated, quotations are
given from Ps. xxxiv. and cxlv. ; Matt, xviii. 19 ; x. 8 ; and Luke xv.

RELIGIOUS WARS ; CONTRADICTORY COMMANDS. 41

make slaves of mankind, until they confess ' that there is no
God but the Lord, and that Mahomet is his Servant and
Apostle ; ' or, if they refuse, * until they pay tribute with
their hands and are humbled.' Dost thou indeed desire
(may the Lord enlighten thee !) that I should work the
works of Satan, the bereft of mercy, who first himself be-
guiled mankind, and then, by filling them with hate and
bitterness, hath made them his tools, to carry out thereby
his devilish ends of murder, rape, and rapine.

"Now tell me how thou wilt reconcile the two sets of
passages that follow (for they are confessedly Contradic-
discordant) out of the book thou boldest to be toryPassages.
divine ? * Let there be a people amongst you who invite
to that which is just, enjoin the right and Sura iii. 104.
forbid the evil; these shall be blessed.' Again, 'The di-
rection of them appertaineth not unto thee ; but rather,
the Lord directeth whom he pleaseth.' And Sura ii. 273.
more forcibly still : ' Had the Lord so pleased, verily all
that are on the earth would have believed, every one^
Wilt thou, then, compel men to become be- Sura x. 98.
lievers, seeing that no soul can believe but by command
(or permission) of God?' Seest thou not how these
commands are inconsistent with force ? Hear yet again :
* Say, 0 men, the truth hath verily now come Sura x. 107.
unto you from your Lord ; he, therefore, that is rightly
directed, is directed for the benefit of his own soul; and
he that erreth, erreth only against the same ; I am no
Guardian over you. Do thou (0 Mahomet) follow that
which is revealed unto thee. Be patient until the Lord
decide ; for he is the best of all Deciders.' Similarly,
in another text: * If thy Lord had pleased, Suraxi. 119.
he had made all men of one faith ; but they shall not
cease to difier among themselves, excepting those upon
whom thy Lord hath mercy ; and unto this hath he
created them.' Again, thy Master reiterates emphatically,
that he Was sent with Merc?/ to the human race} ' Mercy,'

1 The words are not quoted literally ; but the expression occurs in more than
one passage, as Sura xxi. 107 ; xxviii. 47.

42 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

in slaying, plundering, and enslaving ! Tlie Jews accuse thy
book of contradicting itself. I will use no such oppro-
brious expression towards tbe book ; but what I say is
that thou, my Friend, contradictest thyself. Thou art
never weary of crying up thy faith as divine; and anon
thou turnest clean round, and sayest just the opposite ;
for what after all, are these doings, — killing and shedding
of blood, rapine and robbery, and making slaves of men and
women, — what are they, but the works of the Devil ?

"If the precedent of Moses and Joshua be urged, I
demand miracles such as they wrought to justify the
commission. Moreover, they fought against idolaters ; but
here, the horrors of war, bloodshed, rapine, and slavery
are hurled against the innocent, nay, against the people
of Grod, — those who observe His ordinances, devote soul
and body to His service, believe in His Messiah, worship
Him and are guided into the right way, — those whose
Leaders are blessed and renowned both in this world
and the next.

" Still further, thou art not content with this, but insistest
on calling it * The Way of the Lord.' God forbid that that
should be His way, or that His children should commit
such crimes ; for He loveth not the transgressors. And
then thou hast it revealed, in direct contradiction thereof.
Sura ii. 25. — ^ Let there be no constraint in religion.*
Sura iii. 20. And, * Say unto those who have received the

* Scriptures, and to the Gentiles, — Do ye embrace Islam ?
' Now, if they embrace it, they are surely guided aright ;

* but, if they turn their backs, verily unto thee (0 Prophet)

* belongeth delivery of the message only, for God observeth
Sura ii. 254. * His servants.' And again, 'If the Lord had

* so willed, those who came after them {i,e. after the Apostles

* and Jesus) would not have contended among themselves,

* after manifest signs had been shown unto them. But

* they fell to variance. Some believed, and some believed
' not. And if God had so pleased, they had not so contended.

* But the Lord doeth as it so pleaseth Him.' And yet again,
addressing the Unbelievers (Kafirs), thy Master is bidden

RELIGIOUS WAR: CONTRADICTORY PASSAGES. 43

to say, * Ye have your religion, and I have Sura cix.
mine/ And finally, ' Contend not with the People of the
Book,^ but in the way that is most mild and Sura xxix. 46.
gracious.' And then thou stirrest up thy people to attack
mankind with the sword, to plunder them, and lead them

away captive, that they may be forced to embrace the .

faith by violence and against their will. Which of the ^
two directions am I to follow, the first or the last?

" Thou wilt say, then, that one of the two sets of ^
texts is cancelled by the other. But which Onesetofpas-
cancelleth, and which is cancelled, thou canst sages cancelled
not show. Thou hast confessedly neither proof ^^ ^^ o^&[.
nor certain knowledge in this matter ; and it may be that
thou mistakest the one for the other. How are we to
discriminate the true from the false, for the two sets of
passages both being in thy Book, are directly opposed the
one to the other ; and there is this risk that the one which
thou regardest as true, and on which thou art bound to act,
may be the one that is false and therefore to be abandoned ;
so that really each counteracteth the other, and neither can
be the command of the Lord.

" And, now, say, — Hath it ever reached thine ears, or
hast thou ever read in any book, sacred or profane, of a
preacher, other than thy Master, imposing his creed by
force, or summoning men to believe, against their conscience,
by sword and threat, rapine and slavery ? Even the ab-
horred Magians claim that inspiration descended on Zerdasht,
at the hill Sailan, and that Kashtasaf and his people
believed on seeing the miracle of the dead horse brought
to life again, and that the ten thousand volumes of the
Zenda- vesta were revealed in every human tongue (which
yet if ye ask the meaning thereof no one knoweth). After
the same manner is the miracle of the Phoenix wrought
by Bood in India, from the bowels of which a damsel
issued, prophesying, and testifying that Bood was a divine
image, and his doctrine true. These are but examples.

1 That is, Jews and Christians.

44 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

And so, my Friend, thou wilt find in history mention of no
teacher, true or false, who did not advance some kind of
proof, to be weighed in the scales of right and wrong,
excepting only thy Master ; for he used no other argument
that I can see, but the sword. Nor wilt thou hear of any
other but he, standing up and saying, — Whoever doth not
accept me as a Frophet and the Apostle of God, the same shall
v/ be slain J his goods seized, and his women and children carried
off captive ; — and all this without a tittle of evidence !

" As for the ministry of our blessed Saviour, it is too
sacred and excellent to be brought into comparison here.
Thou knowest it all. Now say, my Friend, doth it become
a man of thine intelligence and culture to ask one like
me, who have devoted my life to the study of men and
things, to embrace a faith like this, — I who read the words
of the Saviour, — my garment and my righteousness, —
night and day : hearken to His gracious voice : — •* Be tender
unto all mankind, and merciful ; that ye may be like unto
your Father in Heaven, for He causeth his sun to shine
on the good and on the bad, and sendeth down his rain
upon the righteous and upon the wicked.' How should
I, with these words ringing in my ears, — I who have
been nurtured in this blessed faith of Grace and Mercy, —
so that it hath become part of my flesh, my bones, my
blood, my very life, — God forbid that I should harden
my heart and become rebellious, changed into the image
of Iblis, the Enemy and Murderer ; and should smite
with the sword, and slay children of mine own species,
the seed of Adam formed by the hand of the Almighty,
and in the likeness of the Most High ; — He that saith,
* I desire not the death of the sinner, who is to-day in his
sins, and on the morrow, if he repent, I will receive him
as a tender Father doth.' " There follows a glowing descrip-
tion of the glory and honour bestowed on humanity by the
Son of God having taken our nature, and as such worshipped
by angels and endowed with all power in heaven and earth, —
our Brother, seated at the right hand of the Majesty on
high, to come hereafter as the Judge of men, angels, and

RELIGIOUS WAR, CONTRARY TO DIVINE LAW. 45

devils. ** Wilt tliou, my Friend, that I, rejecting His grace
and favour, should destroy and enslave mine own species,
ennobled thus and allied with the Divine nature ? God
forbid ! I flee to the Lord for refuge, from His wrath and
indignation ! "

Should his Friend urge, as an analogy, that God sends death,
famine, and such like calamities on mankind, our Apologist
would reply (not with the childish answer his Friend once
made, in a former discussion " on the soul," that God made
it so,) as follows. "The Lord sendeth death and calami-
ties upon His servants not because he hateth and seeketh to
injure them, for then why should He ever have created man-
kind, and why seek (as we know He doth) to fulfil them with
His grace and mercy and take them from this transitory and
imperfect life, to the blessed life above ? Rather, these trials
and calamities are meant as a probation to prepare for the
reward hereafter ; — even as a skilful and gracious physician,
seeking to recover the sick, giveth bitter medicine and
nauseous draughts, now starveth the appetite, and now
even burneth with the cautery, or cutteth off a limb with the
sharp knife. No one would say that he doeth this from hate
or emnity, but to recover his patient from pain and disease,
to the blessings of health. But you will say, God might have
made man happy without theae trials. Of course. He might ;
and even so. He might not have created this earth at all, but
have placed man from the first, without trial or trouble,
and without any claim of merit, in Paradise. But in His
sovereign wisdom, he hath made the world, and this life
a pilgrimage, and us as * Sons of the road ' resting for the
night as it were in a Khan, that He might, after proving
us for a while with trial and hunger, translate us to our
reward in the Home above of endless peace and happiness.

"Now if this thy Master, whom thou invitest me to
follow, slew, enslaved, scourged, and expatriated men, with the
view of raising them to a better state, — by my life ! surely
he would rather have been patient in admonition, and kind,
and gracious, — following therein the example of the High
and Holy One. But he did not thus, neither concerned

46 THE APOLOGY OF AL KIXDY.

himself for this end. His aim was the aggrandizement of him-
self and his fellows, and the establishment of his kingdom
Sura ix. 30. according to his own words, — Until they pay tribute
ivith their hand and are humbled. Seest thou not, my clear-
sighted Friend, that his desire was not to bring them from
infidelity to faith, nor any regard for their well-being and
happiness, but like other conquerors, to extend his empire.
And yet in the book thou boldest divine, he purporteth to have
been commanded thus ; * Say to the people of the Book and
to the Gentiles, Do ye accept Islam ? , . . and if they turn
their backs, verily thy duty is only to deliver the message.'
Dost thou not perceive that he was commanded to preach
with his lips, and forbidden to strike with the sword ?
Now the Lord enlighten thee, my Friend, and enable thee
to escape from the horns of this dilemma !

" I marvel much that ye call those Martyrs that fall
in war. Thou hast read, no doubt, in history of
Martyrs ^^^ followers of Christ put to death in the per-
contrasted secutions of the Kings of Persia and elsewhere,
with Christian ^^^ i}^Q^Q more worthy to be called Martyrs, or
thy fellows that fall fighting for the world and
the power thereof ? " Then follows a description of various
barbarities and kinds of death inflicted on the Christian
confessors. The more they were slain, the more rapidly spread
the faith ; in place of one, sprung up a hundred. On a
certain occasion, when a great multitude had been put to
death, one said to the king. The number of them increaseth,
instead of fas thou thinkest) diminishing. **How can that
be ? " exclaimed the king. " Yesterday,'' replied the Courtier,
" thou didst put such and such a one to death, and immedi-
ately there were converted just double that number ; and the
people say that a man appeared to the confessors from
heaven, strengthening them at the last moment." The king
finding this to be true, was thereupon himself converted, and
the persecution stayed. These men thought not their lives dear
unto them. Some were transfixed while yet alive ; of others,
the limbs were cut ofi" one after another. Some were cast to
the wild beasts, and others burned in the fire. Such con-

CHRISTIAX AND MOSLEM MARTYRS. 47

tinued long to be tlie fate of the Christian confessors : no
parallel is to be found to it in any other religion : and
all was endured with . constancy, and even with joy. The
story is related of one who smiled in the midst of great
suffering : — " Was it cold water," they asked, " that was
brought to thee ? " " JSTo," answered the Martyr ; " but a
youth stood by me and anointed my wounds ; and that
made me smile ; for the pain forthwith departed, and seemed
as if it entered into my tormentors instead/' But this
Angel, you may say, could equally well have stayed the hand
of the persecutors, and that might have turned to their
conversion ? To this Al Kindy answers. True, for if God
had so willed He might have forced all men into the faith ;
but then the glory of humanity, which lies in Free-will,
would have gone, and with it the merit of obedience based on
evidence without miracles. For miracles were needful only
to those of the early ages, in order to perfect their faith.
But these interpositions are now withdrawn, to make it
manifest that obedience is to be grounded on free and
intelligent conviction. And if men having this evidence
refuse the truth, except they see miracles, the Lord leaveth
them in their error.

With all this, however, our Apologist holds that the virtue
of working miracles, though latent, still survives in the
Christian Church ; and of all religions in it alone. He had
seen with his own eyes, as well as heard on sufficient
evidence, of cures wrought by the clergy and monks in
their holy places, tombs, and churches dedicated to the
Christian martyrs, and also in virtue of their bones and
relics. It was so in every land of the East and West,
excepting only the land of Mahomet, for in Arabia there never
had been any of this class, saving only Sergius and Bahira.^

*']Srow looking with an impartial eye, tell me seriously,
my Friend, which of these two hath the best claim to
be called a Martyr ' slain in the ways of the Lord ' ; he

1 Our Author need not have forgotten the Christians of Najran with their
Eishop Coss, and the martyrs of the Fiery Pits. See Life of Mahomet^ pp. v,
und 81, and Sura Ixxxv.

48 THE APOLOGY OF AL KIXDY.

wlio surrendereth liis life rather than renounce his faith, —
who when it is said, Fall down and worship the sun and
moon, or the idols of silver and gold work of men's hands,
instead of the True God, — refuseth, choosing rather to give
up life, abandon wealth, and forego even wife and family ;
— or he that goeth forth, ravaging and laying waste, plun-
dering and spoiling, slaying the men, carrying off their
children into captivity, and ravishing their wives and maidens
in his unlawful embrace ; and then shall call it Jehad in the
u-ai/s of the Lord, and shall say of him that slayeth or is slain
that ' he hath inherited Paradise/ Judge aright, my Friend,
in this matter. If a robber plundering a house, should fall
into a well, or the wall fall down upon him, or the owner
rush out and strike him, so that he die ; would blood-money
at all be claimable for such a one ? I trow that no Cadhee
/ v^^ould so decide. How then shall paradise be to him who
falleth upon a people unawares, secure and at peace in their
homes, — he knowing not them, nor they him ; plundering,
enslaving, and ravishing ? And, not content therewith,
instead of humbling thyself before the Lord and seeking
pardon for the crime, — thou say est of such a one, whether
he slay or be slain, that ' he hath earned Paradise,' and thou
namest him ' a Martyr in the ways of the Lord ' ! If such be
thy judgment, it is naught but the judgment of Satan,
the Enemy of Adam and his race from of old. But well I
know that thy reason and justice both forbid it."

He pauses to apologize for the warmth of his language.
V Sparks will fly from the flint when it is struck by steel. It was
his friend himself who had enlarged the sphere of the discus-
sion ; and there had been much need for the stipulated for-
bearance on either side. Moreover, his argument was intended
not merely for his friend, but for all who should read his book.

Of the temporal enjoyments held out as a motive for his

conversion, he says that these flit past like a

i^rrmelits <iream of the night, or the lightning which,

offered by dazzling the eye of the bystander for a moment,

Islam (121- leaves him in deeper darkness. Such was not

123)

the chief end of a rational and immortal being.

WORLDLY INDUCEMENTS. 49

Holy men of God souglit rather to be freed from these
allurements. The Goran tells us that the Almighty
** created Men and Genii only that they might Sura li. 56.
serve Him." That was the true end of man: and now
his Friend turned round and tried inconsistently to snare
him with this bait, — Marry such women as are pleasing to
thee, tii'o, three, or four; and slave-girls without stint ;^
eat, drink, and enjoy life like the beasts that have no
restraint either of reason or revelation. As for the change
of wives, and especially the " thrice repeated divorce,"
he had already dwelt upon it, — the latter being Jeremiah iii. i
an abomination, denounced by the prophet ^®^*- ^^^^' ^'
Jeremiah, and by all other creeds and nations; and he
would not defile his book by dwelling further on the
revolting subject.

Coming now near to the close of his argument against
Islam, our Author thankfully acknowledges the r^-^ ^^ .^ ^
guarantee of immunity in the free treatment of for guarantee
their discussion. Our Saviour, indeed, bade us ^f security
not to fear him who hath power over the body ^ " -''
only, but to fear the Creator of both soul and body.
Nevertheless Al Kindy had gained additional freedom and
assurance from the just and impartial rule of the Com-
mander of the Faithful, who always protected the weak like
himself, and under the shadow of whose benign and power-
ful sceptre, the Christian community reposed in comfort and
security. And he besought the Lord, who answered the
prayers of His faithful servants, to grant every worldly
blessing both to his august Person and to his Family.

Referring, once more, to his Friend's invitation to share
with him the honours and dignities of the realm
and the rank proper to his distinguished birth, J^^^ noTbf^
our Apologist says that the Lord truly had be- dazzled by the
stowed upon the kindred of his Friend the distinctions
Caliphate, with all its honours and distinc- ^23 124)
tions ; and long might it remain safe and intact

1 Piio:e 20.

50 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

in tlie Abbasside line of tbe Prophet's bouse. But, as
for the glory that remaineth, there was none but that
which arose from a holy life. The Prophet himself, address-
ing his people, said, " 0 ye seed of Abd Menaf, birth and
dignity shall profit nought either for me or for you : verily,
with the Lord, the best of you is the holiest.'* And truly,
Holy men of God have mostly had little to boast of in race or
blood or worldly greatness. Their piety was their nobility ;
the world to come, their inheritance. Our Apologist had
no desire to parade his ancestry, descended though he
was from the Kings of the Beni Kinda, whose authority was
once acknowledged over all Arabia ; for as the apostle Paul
had said. He thai gloyieth, let him glory in the Lord. Beyond
that glory he had no ambition. His boast was in the faith
of Christ, whom to know was Life eternal.

The Hashimite had spoken of the need of the Prophet's
p . . advocacy in the Day of Judgment, when he
Mahomet's would cry aloud, " These are my kin ; these
intercession ^re my people ! " and his intercession would
^ ' ^'' prevail.^ "My dearest Friend," answers Al
Kindy, " are thine eyes asleep, or dreaming, that thou
utterest such senilities ? There is no shadow of doubt but
that our Lord Jesus Christ, — the same as is borne testimony
to in thine own book, — in that day will be sole Judge,
rendering by the strictest rule of right, to every man
according to his deeds, be they good or evil. Righteous-
ness alone will then avail." Let not his Friend be be-
guiled by the lying vanities of the world. The march was
swift ; death was near ; the day at hand, when we must all
stand before the Judgment- seat, and then repentance, excuse,
and supplication would be all too late. And so he ends an
earnest personal appeal, of which I have contented myself
with giving the mere outline.

"Thou invitest me (he continues), to the Ecmy ivay of faith
Islam an easy ^^'^^ practice. Alas, alas ! and our Saviour telleth
religion (125, us in the Gospel, When ye have done all that ye
^^^)* are commanded, say, We are unprofitahle ser-

1 Page 19.

THE TRINITY. 51

vanfs ; we have done that ichich was commanded us, and ivhere
is our merit ? The same Lord Jesus saith, * How straiglit
is the road which leadeth unto life, and how few they that
w^alk therein ! how wide the gate that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be who go in thereat ! ' DijQPerent
this, my Friend, from the facilities of thy wide and
easy gate, and thine advice to me to enjoy the pleasures
oflPered by thy faith in wives and damsels ! '* Then he
prays that God would guide his Friend from such deceits
and errors into the right way, and from the darkness in
which he was shrouded into the marvellous light of the
Gospel. Such prayers (he adds) are constantly put up by
the Christian Church for all sorts and conditions of men, —
that sinners might be converted, and the faithful built
up. "May the Lord fulfil the same for thee and for all
our brethren ! "

He now proceeds to answer the double objection, — that to
acknowledge the Trinity, and to worship the Cross, are both
of them " blasphemy and error. '^ The first our The Triuity
Author (having disposed of it before) treats here '^^^ended from
but briefly. Moslems called the doctrine of the abuse (126
Trinity takhlit (confusion of essence), but so in 127).
truth they call everything which they do not comprehend,
according to the proverb, Man is an enemy to whatever he
doth not understand, — "a principle from which the Lord
defend us ! " That which they call takhlit was an inefiuble
mystery before the Creation ; and thereafter, the angels
and cherubim, prophets and holy men of God, desired to
look into the little that was revealed of it by distant
adumbration ; until the Son himself came and unfolded
the same ; — as when He said, — " Go and call all nations
to the true and perfect knowledge, that which is in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost." The Apostles received this commission from His
sacred lips, and handed it down to us, the whole com-
pany of believers, accompanied by signs and wonders ; and
we stand firmly upon the same, and will, by the grace of
God, do so to the end of time.

52 THE APOLOGY OF AL KINDY.

The adoration of the Cross is dwelt upon at greater
Adoration of length, but may be disposed of briefly here,
the Cross It was not the Cross they worshipped, but the
(127-129). power that rested in it as a symbol, the strength
derived therefrom, and the redemption wrought out upon
the same. " We reverence it, as we reverence symbols of
royalty ; even as the Israelites reverenced the Ark, not the
wooden material, but the presence which it signified ; ^ and
so we follow the example of prophets and holy men, when w^e
do homage to the Cross." Here he takes the opportunity
of bringing home to his friend the inconsistency between
his practice and profession, for it seems that he had been
in the habit, when in sudden peril, of invoking the Cross,
or using the sign, as a safeguard. Repeated occasions are
quoted when this had happened to his friend ; —once on falling
from his beast ; again when he fled from some danger ; and
yet again when on a journey to Omar al Karakh, a lion
started up before them as they neared Sabat al Medain.^
He refers also to an assembly in which his Friend seems
to have recognized and avowed the practice. "And now,"
says Al Kindy, "thou writest as if it were a superstition
which bringeth no good, but hurt. I should like to know
what hath changed thy mind; and what hurt the appeal
to the Cross hath ever caused thee?"

Before passing on to the evidences of Christianity, Al

Kindy founds a quaint but afiectionate remon-

, " ^ ^ ' strance on his friend's daily use of the Fateha.
or daily . -^

prayer not to *' Thine earnest ajDpeal (he says) deserveth my
be among those gratitude as a friendly act; and now if I re-
mo 132^^^^ verse the appeal to thee, I shall deserve thy
thanks with an infinitely deeper meaning. Nay,
what need have I to speak, when thou thyself, five times
in the day, repeatest in thy prayer, — Guide us into the
straight path, the path of those Thou art gracious unto, not
Sura i. of those with whom Thou art wroth, nor of them

^ Here he quotes lumbers x. 35 ; Avhen the Ark was set forward, Moses said,
** Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered," etc.
2 A station in Mesopotamia, near Medain (Ctesiphon).

THE FATEIIA. 53

that go astray. Now, if thou art already rightly guided,
what need hast thou to beg with prostration and impor- ^
tunity, in every prayer of thine, to be guided aright?
There would thus be no reason in the prayer. If, then, thou
art not yet rightly guided, inform me, my Friend (the
Lord bless thee !) who those people are on whom God is
gracious, and into whose way thou art ever praying, night
and day, to be guided. And yet thou claimest to be ' the best
people that have been raised up,' and thy faith Suraiii. no.
the most approved of God for thee. Which religion, then,
is meant?" Hereupon he enumerates the various religions
of the world ; the Magians and Jews, both of whom he
condemns with characteristic warmth ; the idolaters of Arabia,
Atheists, Brahmas, etc. "And, now, as thou canst not but
agree with me in rejecting each and all of these, there
remaineth only as 'the faith of those on whom the Lord
is gracious,' the Christian faith : that truly is the ' Straight
path ' which leadeth to the knowledge of God, and his Word,
and Spirit, and all the ordinances thereof are spiritual and
perfect. I ask thee to accept it, for indeed thou art well
acquainted with the same, and canst not gainsay me in thus
praising it. To us this gracious Gospel hath been given ;
thine own Master beareth testimony to it in his book ; and
all religions bow down before it. Give heed, my Friend,
to what I have here put before thee ; study it as one that
seeketh to have his soul directed aright, not as one that
seeketh to beguile the same. Each soul is responsible for the
road it taketh. If the truth be truth, then follow the
same ; it behoveth thee not to stifle conviction. The Lord
guide thee aright, and direct thy feet into ' the straight
path/ by his power and grace ! "

The remainder of the book is devoted by Al Kindy to
the evidences of Christianity and a brief ac- An account of
count of the life and teaching of our Saviour, l^^^ ^2^'^-
His friend had begged for this;^ and Al Kindy (132-164).

> Paffe 29.

/
v

54 THE APOLOGY OF AL KIXDY.

compliments him as specially qualified, both, by natural gifts
and by knowledge of the subject, to grasp the argument.
He first ofiers up a prayer that the Holy Spirit's light and
guidance might be shed upon his Friend, and all his readers ;
and then proceeds with his subject.

Eight pages are devoted to the prophecies of the Old
Old Testament Testament, from all parts of which quotations
prophecies are freely taken. It is unnecessary to say more
(133-138). .^]^^j^ ^-^^^ neither in the passages selected, nor
in the manner of applying them, does the Apology ma-
terially difier from similar treatises in the present da^^
The section closes with a powerful defence of the Jewish
Jewish , Scriptures against the charge of interpolation
^^^^ ^f , and corruption. First we have their common

uncorrupted ^

(138-140). use from the earliest times by Christians as
well as Jews, notwithstanding that these are irreconcileably
opposed on every other point. Then the Scriptures are
attested by the Coran itself: — "If thou art in doubt as
Sura X. 93. to what We have revealed unto thee, then ask
those who read the Book (revealed) from before thee, —
that verily the truth hath come unto thee from thy Lord,
and be not thou among them that doubt." And still more
Sura ii. 122. explicitly : — " They to whom we have given
the Book read it according to its true reading. These
are they that believe therein ; and whosoever believeth not
therein, they shall be lost." "Our * reading' is here as-
serted to be the right one, and thy Master directeth that
we (that is the Christians) are to be asked concerning the
same, and that what we declare in respect of it must be
accepted. How then canst thou accuse us of corruption, or
of ' changing the text from its place ? ' That would be to
contradict thyself, and go back from the rule of fair inter-
pretation which we agreed to for the conduct of this argu-
ment." He points out further the utter impossibility of
collusion. How could nations of different religion, and
various sects scattered over every land, agree to falsify their
Scriptures ? It were an unheard-of thing. Finally, he con-
trasts the Christian Scriptures with the Moslem, dwelling

THE GOSPEL HISTORY. 55

briefly on his former arguments as to the heterogeneous
character of the materials and composition of the Goran,
and the compulsory enforcement of its acceptance, without
miracle or proof, at the point of the sword. " Judge fairly,
my Friend; for verily the Lord hath appointed reason
and the balance of justice to be the test in this matter ;
and thou, if thou inquirest sincerely, wilt surely, by the
blessing of God, attain unto the Truth."

He then proceeds to the life of our Saviour and the
fulfilment of the prophecies that went be- n,-. j.
fore. After an account of the Annunciation tion and Birth
as given in the Gospels,^ he quotes at length ^^ Christ
the corresponding passage from the Coran,^ ^ " •'*
and adds: — "This is the story as told by thy Suraiii. 35, et
Master himself, in attestation of the Gospel ^eq. (42.49).
history. Now say, my Friend (and the Lord direct thee !)
whether thou hast ever heard, or read in books, of any one
who was ushered into the world with a blessed annunciation
such as I have related to thee from the Gospel, and also
from thine own Scripture." There follows Mary's visit
to Elizabeth, and the vision of Zecharias (in respect of
which the Goran is again quoted as showing that it was
the ofiice of John the Baptist to bear witness Sura iii. 39.
*' to the Word of God " ^), the Adoration of the Magians,
and the Angels' Song to the shepherds.

He passes on briefly to the Ministry of Ghrist; his
baptism, the testimony of his being the Lamb Ministry of
of God, the Temptation, and Miracles. He Christ (145,
dwells on the meekness, humility and kindness ^^^)-
of Jesus ; and lays stress on his poverty and the absence of
any worldly object save only to bring salvation to mankind.

1 Curiously enough he quotes the Salutation thus :— "The blessing of mir Lord
be with thee: " not m?/ Lord, but ours; i.e. of angels and men, implying that
he is "the Lord of heaven and earth," etc. I do not find this reading anywhere.

2 "And when the Angels said, 0, Mary, verily God hath chosen thee, and
sanctified thee, and exalted thee above all the women of the world. 0 Mary,
be devout towards thy Lord, and worship, and bow down with those who bow
down ... 0 Mary, the Lord giveth thee good tidings of the Word proceeding
from himself, called Jesus the Christ, the Son of Mary," etc.

3 In quoting this passage (tj^-w;^ <dll ^ |'«^ UJA*^^) he applies
" lord" (Syed) to Jesus, whereas by the construction it must refer to John.

56 THE APOLOGY OF AL KIXDY.

A full outline follows of our Saviour's teaching drawn
Teachino- of from the Sermon on the Mount ; and a page
our Saviour is devoted to justify the doctrine of the Father-
(146-155). ^^^^^ ^f Q^^^ rpj^g brotherhood and unity of

mankind as flowing therefrom are contrasted with the
Sura Ixiv. 15. teaching of the Coran ; ^ and the claim of the
Almighty to be regarded as a wise and tender Parent
is illustrated from Hebrews xii. 6. He dwells upon the
Sura ii. 87, miracles of Jesus, and shows that they were
254,andiii.48. aoknowledged in the Coran. In contrast with
the wonderful works done by the Jewish prophets, Jesus
performed these by His own inherent power, and never
Jerem.vii.i6. failed as Moses did at the waters of Meriba,
or Jeremiah whom the Lord refused to hear.

For his Apostles the Lord chose simple and unlearned
. , , persons, poor fishermen and despised tax gatherers,
disciples sent Through these He overturned all the wisdom and
forth by Christ philosophy, the nobility and kingly power that
^ ' ^ ^' opposed the faith on every hand. The instruc-
tions with which the Apostles and the Seventy disciples
were sent forth are given in considerable detail, and are
summed up with great force and eloquence, in implied
contrast with the interested aims, and worldly agencies, of
the first propagators of Islam.

The death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus are
Death and As- recounted in a very few lines. " Let me add
cension of Jesus (says our Author) " the testimony of the
(160). Coran, — * When God said, 0 Jesus, verily I

* will cause thee to die, and will raise thee up unto myself,

Sura iii. * ^^^ will deliver thee from the unbelievers ;
54-57. < and will make thy followers to be over those

* that disbelieve even until the day of judgment. Then

* unto me shall ye return ; and I will judge between you,

* as to that concerning which ye have been at variance.

^ I must note, hovrever, that the passage quoted does not bear out his argu-
ment: — " 0 ye that believe, verily from amongst your wives and children, ye
have enemies ; wherefore beware of them" : meaning, no doubt that they were
dangerous because likely to tempt them from the right way ; as Luke xiv. 26.

THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL CONTRASTED WITH ISLAM. 57

* But they that disbelieve, I will visit them with a grievous

* punishment, both in this world and the next ; they shall

* have none to help them. But they that believe and

* do good works, we shall fulfil to them their reward. And

* God loveth not the transgressors. These signs (or verses)

* and this sage admonition do we rehearse unto thee.* Now
may the Lord open thine eyes and understanding, for
these are the very words of thy Master and his confession
and testimony in the revelation which he claimed (and
which thou admittest) to be from the Lord. Turn not
then away from the right, for if thou wilt be true to
thyself, the light shall spring upon thee.'*

Advancing now to the ministry of the Apostles, — after
a brief notice of the descent of the Holy Ghost,

-,, - f>-r» 1 Ministry of the

" the Jraraclete, on the day 01 Pentecost, and j\posties and
the gift of tongues, he proceeds : — *' Upon that, spread of
the Apostles separated, each to the country to Christianity
which he was called, and the language of which
was made known unto him. And they wrote out the
Holy Gospel, and the story and teaching of Christ, in
every tongue at the dictation of the Holy Ghost. So the
Nations drew near unto them, and believed their testimony ;
and, giving up the world and their false beliefs, embraced the
Christian faith, as soon as ever the dawn of truth and light
of the Good tidings broke upon them. Distinguishing thus
the true from the false, and error from the right direction,
they embraced the Gospel and held it fast without doubt or
wavering, when they saw the wonderful works and signs
of the Apostles, and their lives and conversation set after the
holy and beautiful example of our Saviour, the traces whereof
remain even unto the present day. From them, the Faith
hath been handed down ; we have added nothing to it,
neither taken aught therefrom. In this Faith we shall live,
in it we shall die, and in the same shall we rise again, and
stand in the presence of Christ our Lord, in the day when
the whole world shall be gathered before Him. How
difierent this from the life of thy Master and his Com-
panions, who ceased not to go forth in battle and rapine,

58 THE APOLOGY OF AL KIXDY.

to smite with the sword, to seize the little ones, and ravish
wives and maidens, — plundering and laying waste, and carry-
ing the people away into captivity ! And this they continue
unto the present day, — inciting men to these evil deeds,
even as Omar the Caliph said, — // one hath a heathen neigh-
hour, and is. in need of his price, let him seize and sell him}
And many such things they say and teach. Look now at
the lives of Simon and Paul, who went about healing the
sick, and raising the dead, by the name of Christ our Lord ;
and mark the contrast."

If it be asked why the power of working miracles is

no longer seen in our Holy men, our Apologist

/ lono-er shown ^^^wers that their ministry differs from that

saving in of the Apostles who had to preach a new faith

individual and ^^{i\^ extraordinary evidence. Miraculous cures,

casesfie'^ 163) ^^ ^^ prayer of Holy men, are still performed in

individual cases, to mark their acceptance with
the Lord, and to show that the healing virtue is not dead.
But if the practice were common of quickening the dead and
healing the sick, then no one need die, and where then would
be the promise of the Resurrection? Moreover, they are
no longer required. Miracles were needed only in the first
days of spreading the faith amongst nations sunk in idolatry
and ignorance. Man is not to be forced by superfluous
exhibitions of power, nor driven like the beasts by the appeal
to his senses. Sufiicient evidence had been long ago pro-
vided, and he was left, as a rational being in the exercise of
his faculties to apply the same.

" And now," concludes Al Kindy, " I have related to
Final appeal thee, very briefly, the story of our Saviour the
(163-165). Christ, with a short notice of his Apostles from
whom we have received our blessed Faith and hold it fast.
Now consider what thou wilt of that which I have set
before thee, in connection with what thou already knowest
of the same, and judge between us righteously. 0 if thou
wouldest but listen to my advice, and, leaving what is

1 I need hardly say that this sentiment is entirely at variance with the liberal
and tolerant policy of Omar.

>C{)NCLUSIOX. 59

dark and evil, come to the liglit and brightness of the
Gospel, then shonldest thou be of the number of our
Saviour's chosen ones, inheriting the kingdom of heaven
and that blessedness which knoweth no ending, and the joy
of which passeth description. Fear Him, my Friend, who
hath power both over the body and the soul, Who is ready
to have mercy on thee, and embrace thee, even as a tender
father embraceth his wandering son. The Lord hath
favoured thee with wisdom and understanding above thy
fellows. Be not then deceived with the pomps and vanities
of this transitory life ; for verily the world with its lusts
and pleasures is a Syren that leadeth to destruction. Look
to thy soul, my Friend, before the day when thy sight shall
fail from thine eyes, and weigh well what I have written
in the scales of justice and by the light of reason. The
matter is one of infinite import, and cannot, without eternal
risk, be put aside. It concerneth thee, not only in this life,
but in the great future before thee, when no vain excuse
will be accepted. And know of a certainty that he who
rejecteth all vain and false securities, and believeth in the
Lord, hath laid hold of a sure refuge, and will find eternal
rest in His good pleasure.

*' I have now done my task to the best of my ability ;
and, having delivered my Message to the utmost Conclusion
of my power, I leave it with thee, and with (164-105).
all those who shall read this my Book, — praying the Lord
to fulfil in thee, and in us all, every good work, redeem us
from all iniquity, and join us hereafter in His kingdom
above with the chosen ones whom he visiteth with His
beneficence and grace.

"And now. Peace be on thee, and Mercy from the Lord,
and His blessing! Amen."

STKPHEN AISTIN AND SONS, PRINTKR8, HKRTFORD.

317

Art. XX. — Further Note on the Apology of Al-Kinchj. By
Sir W. MuiR, K.C.S.I., D.C.L., LL.D.

With reference to my paper on the Apology of Al-Kindy,
I have received the following letter from Professor Ignatius
Guidi, dated Rome, 24th February : —

" You will be glad to hear that in the Propaganda Library
(Museo Borgiani) I found a MS. of the Apology of Al-Kindi,
together with the letter of his Moslem friend. The amanu-
ensis was, I think, a Jacobite (the MS. is written in Karshuni
character), hence he says (page 5, line 18 of the printed text) :

The Roman MS. is apparently of the same family with the
Paris MS. as described by Zotenberg, Catalogue des MS8.
Syriaques de la Bihlioth. Nationale, Nos. 204, 205.^'

In a subsequent communication, dated 12th March, M.
Ign. Guidi adds : —

" The Propaganda MS. of Al-Kindy's Apology has, at the
end of the letter of the Moslem, a note which states that a
certain Abuna Saliba l-wJ-^ ^J^^ ^y-^^ abridged the letter of
the Moslem ; then a certain Musa transcribed, from the copy
of Abuna Saliba, the MS. now in the Propaganda, in the year
of the Greeks 1957, corresponding with 1052 of the Hegira
(1642-3 A.D.).

" The MS. is in octavo, and has 18 lines in every page ;
the letter of the Moslem occupies 16 pages ; it seems therefore
to he a little shorter than the printed text."

1 That ia to say, the Moslem advocate is made to represent the Nestorian as
the worst, and the Jacobite the best, form of the Christian religion. The Arabic
MSS. reverse this statement, and make Al-Kindy a Nestorian, which no doubt
he was.

318 THE APOLOGY OF AL-KINDY.

The notices referred to above from Zotenberg's Catalogue
are as follows, pp. 155, 156 :

" 204. No. 8 (fol. 124?;.) Apologie de la religion chretienne,
par un chretien Jacobite (Jacque al Kindi) addressee, sous
le forme de lettre, a un Musulman qui Tavait attaquee. En
Carschouni ; . . . .

^'205. Apologie de la religione chretienne, par Jacques le
Kindien, Jacobite, en reponse a une attaque d'un Musulman
de la famille de Haschim. En Carschouni .... Le preface
est suivi de la lettre abregee du Musulman. L'ouvrage
proprement dit commence ainsi .... Cet exemplaire ne
renferme pas la conclusion qui se trouve dans I'autre copie.

"Ce MS. a ete execute en 1934 des Grecs (1619 de J.C).
La copie fut commencee par la diacre Salibi, de Dam as, qui
a abrege lui-meme la lettre Mahom^tane, et qui ajoute
plusieurs notes marginales. La transcription a ete continuee
et terminee par son frere, le diacre Joane, et deux autres
diacres, Serge et Moise.

" II est a croire que Touvrage n'etait pas designe

par un titre particulier."

The Apology thus reaches us through the medium of MSS.
belonging to two distinct families. Fir sty the Arabic proper,
handed down by the Nestorian section of the Church, which
I take to be the original form in which the Apology appeared.
Secondly, the Karshuny, or Arabic in Syriac character, handed
down by the Jacobite Church ; — which explains the appella-
tion which I took to be a mistake in M. de Sacy's article
(see p. vi of my paper).

The Karshuni family of MSS. is shown by Prof. Guidi's
notes to have existed in a separate and independent form, at
any rate Two and a half centuries ago.

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Full text of "The apology of Al Kindy, written at the court of Al Mâmûn (A. H. 215; A. D. 830) in defense of Christianity against Islam. With an essay on its age and authorship read before the Royal Asiatic Society"

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